An international team of researchers has identified a previously unknown fossil ape that lived about 17 to 18 million years ago during the Early Miocene. The species, named Masripithecus moghraensis, was described in a study published in Science by scientists from the Mansoura University Vertebrate Paleontology Center (Egypt) and the University of Southern California (USA).
The fossils were discovered at Wadi Moghra in northern Egypt and provide the first definitive evidence of an ape from North Africa. Their age and location broaden the known distribution of early apes and suggest that Egypt, along with the wider Middle East region, played an important role in the evolutionary developments that eventually gave rise to modern apes.
A Missing Piece in North Africa
Hesham Sallam, a paleontologist at Mansoura University, Egypt, and senior author of the study, said, “We spent five years searching for this kind of fossil because, when we look closely at the early ape family tree, it becomes clear that something is missing — and North Africa holds that missing piece.”
Before this discovery, Early Miocene fossil sites in North Africa had produced remains of monkeys but no confirmed apes. That absence led many researchers to conclude that apes and their close relatives were largely restricted to areas farther south in Africa at the time.
Younger ape fossils have been found across Africa, Asia, and Europe, but scientists continue to debate how these species were related and where their ancestors originated. The new evidence suggests that gaps in the fossil record may have distorted the history of crown Hominoidea, the group that includes all living apes, from gibbons and orangutans to gorillas, chimpanzees, and humans, along with their last common ancestor.
A Distinct Ape From Ancient Egypt
Masripithecus shows that apes were already living in North Africa during the Early Miocene. It also appears to have differed substantially from ape species of a similar age found in East Africa.
The name Masripithecus combines Masr (مصر), the Arabic word for Egypt, with the Greek píthēkos, meaning ape. The species name moghraensis refers to Wadi Moghra, the fossil-rich area in northern Egypt where members of the Sallam Lab recovered the remains during fieldwork in 2023 and 2024.
Only part of the lower jaw has been found, but it contains a combination of traits not known in any other ape from the same period. The fossil includes unusually large canine and premolar teeth, molars with rounded and strongly textured chewing surfaces, and a particularly sturdy jaw.
“Together, they suggest that Masripithecus was adapted for versatility. The study interprets its chewing anatomy as evidence of a flexible, mainly fruit-based diet, with the ability to process harder foods such as nuts or seeds when needed. This flexibility would have helped Masripithecus to thrive at a time when climatic changes were leading to more pronounced seasonality in northern Africa and Arabia,” said Shorouq Al-Ashqar, a researcher at the Mansoura University Vertebrate Paleontology Center, Egypt, who was a first author of the study.
New Clues From the Ape Family Tree
The importance of Masripithecus extends beyond its unusual teeth and jaw. The species also appears to occupy a significant position in the evolutionary history of apes.
The researchers used advanced Bayesian methods to combine several kinds of evidence. They compared anatomical traits from living and extinct apes, DNA from living species, and the geological ages of known fossils. This allowed them to estimate how different ape groups were related and when their evolutionary lineages separated.
Their results indicate that Masripithecus was more closely related to living apes than any Early Miocene species currently known from East Africa.
Ape Origins May Point North
The team also carried out biogeographic analyses to investigate where the common ancestor of all living apes most likely lived. Their findings point to northern Africa and the Middle East during the Early Miocene.
At that time, the region occupied a strategically important position. The African and Arabian plates were moving northward during the final stage of their collision with Asia. Changes in sea level sometimes narrowed or removed marine barriers, creating temporary routes that animals could use to move between regions.
Masripithecus helps connect the previously separated fossil records of Africa and Eurasia. Its presence suggests that apes were already diversifying in this area before land connections opened the way for them to spread into Europe and Asia.
A Long-Held Theory Faces a Challenge
Erik Seiffert, a paleontologist at the University of Southern California and a co-author of the study, said the findings changed his view of early ape evolution.
“For my entire career, I considered it probable that the common ancestor of all living apes lived in or around East Africa. But this new discovery, and our new and novel analyses of hominoid phylogeny and biogeography, now strongly challenge that idea. And, importantly, the likelihood of this scenario doesn’t depend on Masripithecus — but it is very much consistent with it.”
The researchers expect that additional fieldwork in North Africa and the Middle East will uncover more fossils that clarify how modern apes originated and began to diversify.
The discovery of Masripithecus moghraensis suggests that important parts of ape evolutionary history may remain buried in regions that paleontologists have not yet explored in depth.
