Based on 18 million year old jaw fragments, paleontologists have discovered Masripithecus moghraensis, the earliest confirmed fossil ape discovered in North Africa, in northern Egypt. The majority of Early Miocene ape fossils were previously discovered in East Africa. The nd implies that northeastern Afro-Arabia may be the ancestral home of all extant apes. Genetic studies linked African and Eurasian fossil records by placing Masripithecus closer to contemporary apes than other fossils from that age.
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