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National Geographic

For decades, scientists have traced the origins of modern apes to East Africa. But a newly identified species—Masripithecus moghraensis, discovered in Egypt—may challenge that idea. The 17- to 18-million-year-old fossil suggests that the earliest ancestors of living apes were present farther north. This 3D reconstruction of the ape is based on the jaw bones researchers found in Egypt. Learn how the discovery could upend our understanding of early ape evolution at the 🔗 in bio.

On the profile · Mar 29, 2026