From Newsgroup: sci.anthropology.paleo


https://phys.org/news/2026-03-human-ancestor-balkans-fossil-evidence.html

Walking on two legs has long been considered a
milestone in human evolution and one of our most
defining characteristics. Until now, researchers
assumed that the first humans originated in Africa
and that bipedalism developed there around 6 million
years ago. However, an international team of
researchers say a newly discovered fossil thighbone
from Bulgaria could rewrite the history of human
origins.

Experts from Bulgaria's National Museum of Natural
History, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in
Greece, the Senckenberg Center for Human Evolution
and Palaeoenvironment at the University of T|+bingen
in Germany, and the University of Toronto in Canada
say the femur shows unmistakable features of a biped,
a human ancestor which was walking upright earlier
than previously knownrComore than 7 million years ago.
...
"At 7.2 million years old, this ancestor, which we
classify as belonging to the genus Graecopithecus,
could be the oldest known human," says Professor
David Begun of the University of Toronto.

The first Graecopithecus specimen, a fragment of
lower jaw, was discovered at a site near Athens. The
research team examined this find in 2017 and concluded
that the shape of the tooth roots suggested
Graecopithecus was an early human ancestor. The lower
jaw could not provide evidence on how the creature
moved, but here the newly discovered femur from the
Bulgarian site of Azmaka provides valuable new
information.

The owner of the thighbone was likely a female
weighing about 24 kilograms. She lived beside a
river in what was then a savanna landscape similar
to that of present-day East Africa. "A number of
external and internal morphological features, such
as the elongated, upward-pointing neck between the
femur shaft and head, special attachment points for
the gluteal muscles, and the thickness of the outer
bone layer, have similarities with bipedal fossil
human ancestors and humans," says Professor Nikolai
Spassov of the Bulgarian National Museum of Natural
History.

This is where they differed from the thighs of
tree-dwelling apes. "However, Graecopithecus did not
quite move the way modern humans do," Spassov adds.
The Azmaka thigh combines features of African apes
with those of more recent bipeds.
...


https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12549-025-00691-0
An early form of terrestrial hominine bipedalism in
the Late Miocene of Bulgaria


Abstract
Fossils of Orrorin record the first convincing
evidence of hominid terrestrial bipedalism in the
Late Miocene, at about six million years ago.
Bipedalism in the slightly older (7 Ma old)
Sahelanthropus has recently been called into
question. Here we present the first known hominine
postcranial element from Azmaka (Bulgaria), a 7.2 Ma
old nearly complete femur, which we tentatively
attribute to cf. Graecopithecus. The Azmaka hominine
represents a candidate for the ancestral form of
positional behaviour from which bipedalism documented
in later hominins evolved. The Azmaka femur lacks
many of the specialised attributes of arboreal
quadrupeds. At the same time the combination of
locomotor features of this femur indicates a complex
locomotor repertoire. Qualitative and quantitative
morphological analyses demonstrate that the Azmaka
femur combines certain attributes of terrestrial
quadrupeds and bipeds and clusters mostly with early
bipeds and partially with African apes. The morphology
indicates a transitional form of bipedalism. The
wooded-grassland savanna environment of the early
Messinian locality of Azmaka suggests that terrestrial
bipedalism likely evolved in a non-forested setting.
The early Messinian age is critical to our
understanding of mammalian palaeobiogeography and the
intercontinental dispersals between Eurasia and Africa.
We hypothesise that the descendants of the Azmaka
hominine may have dispersed from Eurasia into Africa
under the influence of climatic and environmental
changes in the eastern Mediterranean. If such dispersal
occurred, it may have been associated with subsequent
re-occupation of more forested settings in both the
ancestors of African apes and hominins.










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From Newsgroup: sci.anthropology.paleo

On 3/10/26 9:25 PM, Primum Sapienti wrote:

Walking on two legs has long been considered a
milestone in human evolution

Bipedal locomotion amongst our ancestors is older than
the genus Homo, and presently is dated back more than
twice as far as habilis... at least as far as hard
evidence goes.

Don't get me wrong: I like it! I like defining Homo
and our kin by their bipedalism instead of just brain
size. But we need to either recategorize all human
ancestors, rewrite all of our evolution -- BECAUSE
bipedalism is NOT a human trait, Homo, as we currently
use these terms -- or we have to stop saying that it's
a "Human" trait.

Think of it like dinosaurs and how many dinosaur traits
were (and still are) mischaracterized as "Bird traits."

...as in "bird like traits in dinosaurs."

No, honey, those are DINOSAUR TRAITS found in birds!

It's a way of thinking and once your thinking adapts to
the reality an entirely different world opens up.

So I'm cool with this "Bipedalism is a human thing." And
I'm not cool with it. Either way some changes need to be
made.

Thank you and God bless.
--
https://jtem.tumblr.com/
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From Newsgroup: sci.anthropology.paleo


Primum Sapienti <invalide@invalid.invalid> posted:

https://phys.org/news/2026-03-human-ancestor-balkans-fossil-evidence.html

Walking on two legs has long been considered a
milestone in human evolution and one of our most
defining characteristics. Until now, researchers
assumed that the first humans originated in Africa
and that bipedalism developed there around 6 million
years ago. However, an international team of
researchers say a newly discovered fossil thighbone
from Bulgaria could rewrite the history of human
origins.

Experts from Bulgaria's National Museum of Natural
History, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in
Greece, the Senckenberg Center for Human Evolution
and Palaeoenvironment at the University of T|+bingen
in Germany, and the University of Toronto in Canada
say the femur shows unmistakable features of a biped,
a human ancestor which was walking upright earlier
than previously knownrComore than 7 million years ago.
...
"At 7.2 million years old, this ancestor, which we
classify as belonging to the genus Graecopithecus,
could be the oldest known human," says Professor
David Begun of the University of Toronto.

The first Graecopithecus specimen, a fragment of
lower jaw, was discovered at a site near Athens. The
research team examined this find in 2017 and concluded
that the shape of the tooth roots suggested
Graecopithecus was an early human ancestor. The lower
jaw could not provide evidence on how the creature
moved, but here the newly discovered femur from the
Bulgarian site of Azmaka provides valuable new
information.

The owner of the thighbone was likely a female
weighing about 24 kilograms. She lived beside a
river in what was then a savanna landscape similar
to that of present-day East Africa. "A number of
external and internal morphological features, such
as the elongated, upward-pointing neck between the
femur shaft and head, special attachment points for
the gluteal muscles, and the thickness of the outer
bone layer, have similarities with bipedal fossil
human ancestors and humans," says Professor Nikolai
Spassov of the Bulgarian National Museum of Natural
History.

This is where they differed from the thighs of
tree-dwelling apes. "However, Graecopithecus did not
quite move the way modern humans do," Spassov adds.
The Azmaka thigh combines features of African apes
with those of more recent bipeds.
...

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12549-025-00691-0
An early form of terrestrial hominine bipedalism in
the Late Miocene of Bulgaria

Abstract
Fossils of Orrorin record the first convincing
evidence of hominid terrestrial bipedalism in the
Late Miocene, at about six million years ago.
Bipedalism in the slightly older (7 Ma old)
Sahelanthropus has recently been called into
question. Here we present the first known hominine
postcranial element from Azmaka (Bulgaria), a 7.2 Ma
old nearly complete femur, which we tentatively
attribute to cf. Graecopithecus. The Azmaka hominine
represents a candidate for the ancestral form of
positional behaviour from which bipedalism documented
in later hominins evolved. The Azmaka femur lacks
many of the specialised attributes of arboreal
quadrupeds. At the same time the combination of
locomotor features of this femur indicates a complex
locomotor repertoire. Qualitative and quantitative
morphological analyses demonstrate that the Azmaka
femur combines certain attributes of terrestrial
quadrupeds and bipeds and clusters mostly with early
bipeds and partially with African apes. The morphology
indicates a transitional form of bipedalism. The
wooded-grassland savanna environment of the early
Messinian locality of Azmaka suggests that terrestrial
bipedalism likely evolved in a non-forested setting.
The early Messinian age is critical to our
understanding of mammalian palaeobiogeography and the
intercontinental dispersals between Eurasia and Africa.
We hypothesise that the descendants of the Azmaka
hominine may have dispersed from Eurasia into Africa
under the influence of climatic and environmental
changes in the eastern Mediterranean. If such dispersal
occurred, it may have been associated with subsequent
re-occupation of more forested settings in both the
ancestors of African apes and hominins.

Erika at YouTube Gutsick Gibbon just made a video on the Azmaka hominine.

I think it is just another miocene ape in the Black Sea refugium.





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