European fossils may belong to earliest known hominid

Graecopithecus’ teeth suggest it was part of the human evolutionary family, researchers argue

Graecopithecus jaw

GREEK PUZZLER  This jaw and teeth previously found in Greece, along with a tooth unearthed in Bulgaria, come from a line of more than 7-million-year-old primates that might have been the oldest known hominids, a new study concludes. Other researchers are skeptical of that claim.

W. Gerber/Univ. of Tübingen

Europe, not Africa, might have spawned the first members of the human evolutionary family around 7 million years ago, researchers say.