Researchers from Mansoura University and the University of Southern California have described Masripithecus moghraensis, a roughly 17–18-million-year-old fossil ape from Wadi Moghra in northern Egypt. It is the first definitive fossil ape found in North Africa. The team led by Hesham Sallam recovered it during expeditions in 2023 and 2024 after about five years of searching.
Only the lower jaw is preserved, with large canines and premolars and molars with rounded, textured chewing surfaces. This suggests a diet of mainly fruit, but the animal could also process harder foods such as nuts or seeds. The study, published in Science, places it closer to living apes than any known Early Miocene East African ape.
The finding suggests North Africa and the Middle East may have been an important center for the origin of the common ancestor of all living apes, challenging the long-held East African hypothesis. The researchers do not claim it was a direct ancestor of humans or of living apes.