Graecopithecus

Graecopithecus is an extinct hominid genus known from fossils found in Greece and Bulgaria. Its status as an early member of the human lineage remains debated.

Graecopithecus freybergi: Graecopithecus freybergi is the species named from fossils found in Greece and Bulgaria. This species name is attached to the genus’s principal fossil material.
Hominin: A hominin is a human or an extinct species more closely related to humans than to chimpanzees. Whether Graecopithecus belongs on this branch is the central classification dispute.
Orrorin: Orrorin is an extinct primate genus from Kenya, dated to about six million years ago and proposed as a hominin. Its African fossils provide a competing candidate for an early human-lineage member.
Messinian: The Messinian is the final age of the Miocene epoch, spanning about 7.25 to 5.33 million years ago. The principal Graecopithecus fossils date to the late Miocene, near the Messinian.
Azmaka mandible: The Azmaka mandible is a fossil lower jaw discovered near Chirpan, Bulgaria. Its premolar anatomy supplied evidence used to argue that Graecopithecus lived in Bulgaria.
Hominidae: Hominidae is the primate family comprising humans, great apes, and their extinct relatives. Graecopithecus is generally discussed within this broader ape family.
Sahelanthropus: Sahelanthropus is an extinct primate genus from Chad, dated to roughly seven million years ago and proposed as a hominin. Its older African fossils complicate claims that Graecopithecus marks the earliest hominin evidence.
Miocene: The Miocene is a geological epoch that lasted from about 23 to 5.3 million years ago. Graecopithecus lived during this epoch’s late phase, as ape diversity and environments changed.
Pyrgos Vassilissis jaw: The Pyrgos Vassilissis jaw is a fossil primate mandible discovered near Athens, Greece. This Greek fossil is the type specimen historically assigned to Graecopithecus.
Hominin–chimpanzee divergence: The hominin–chimpanzee divergence is the evolutionary split between the human and chimpanzee lineages. Dating Graecopithecus near this split could shift proposed locations for early human-lineage origins.

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