An 18-million-year-old ape fossil in Egypt questions the East African origin of the great apes

A nearly 18-million-year-old fossil discovered in northern Egypt is forcing us to revisit one of the most deep-rooted ideas about the origin of modern apes and humans. The new species, named Masripithecus moghraensis, lived during the early Miocene and represents the first unambiguous

fossil ape found in North Africa.

The remains, recovered in Wadi Moghra during expeditions in 2023 and 2024, belong to an international team from the Center for Vertebrate Paleontology at Mansoura University and the University of Southern California. The study, published in March 2026 in the journal Science, suggests that North Africa and the Middle East may have played a central role in the appearance of the lineage that gave rise to all living apes

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For decades, it was assumed that the first apes and their close relatives were concentrated further south of the continent. In North Africa, only monkeys from the early Miocene had been found, never definitive apes from that time. That absence had reinforced the theory of an Eastern African origin

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Hesham Sallam, a paleontologist at Mansoura University and lead author of the work, explained the importance of the finding: “We spent five years looking for this type of fossil because, when you look closely at the early family tree of the apes, it becomes clear that something is missing, and North Africa keeps that missing piece.”

Versatile teeth for a changing climate

Although only materials from the lower jaw are preserved, these show an unusual combination of traits. The mandible is exceptionally robust, with very large canines and premolars. The molars have rounded chewing surfaces and marked textures.

According to the researchers, Masripithecus ate mainly fruits, but his teeth allowed him to process harder foods such as nuts or seeds when needed. This dietary flexibility would have been a key advantage at a time of climate changes that accentuated seasonality in North Africa and Arabia

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Shorouq Al-Ashqar, a researcher at the Mansoura Center and first author of the study, said that this versatility would have allowed her to thrive when the availability of certain foods varied throughout the year.

Phylogenetic analysis with Bayesian methods, which combine anatomical, genetic and geological age data, placed Masripithecus closer to living apes than any other known species from the early Miocene of East Africa.

A possible center of diversification

Additional analyses of the distribution of fossil animals point to North Africa and the Middle East as the most likely home of the common ancestor of all current apes. This ancestor would have lived between 23 and 16 million years ago, a period of intense diversification of primate lineages and

profound environmental changes.

The geography of the time reinforces this idea. The movement of the African and Arabian plates to the north, together with the variations in sea level, at certain times facilitated the exchange of fauna between Africa and Eurasia. The region then occupied a strategic position for the dispersion and evolution of mammals, including apes

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Paleontologist Erik Seiffert, from the University of Southern California and co-author of the work, recognized the change in perspective: “Throughout my career, I considered it likely that the common ancestor of all living apes had lived in or around East Africa. But this new discovery and our analyses strongly challenge that idea.”

Researchers do not claim that Masripithecus is a direct ancestor of humans or necessarily of current apes. Its position on the evolutionary tree provides evidence of the geographical origin of the larger lineage. The Egyptian fossil reminds us that fundamental ideas about our remote past can change when researching areas that until now have received less attention.