A new species of fossil ape from the Miocene Epoch was recently discovered in Egypt. The species is named Masripithecus moghraensis. The name Masripithecus means “Egyptian ape” from the Arabic word Masri (مصري), meaning “Egyptian”, and the Greek word pithecus (πίθηκος), meaning “ape” or “monkey”.

The discovery was published today, March 26, in the journal Science in an article titled An Early Miocene ape from the biogeographic crossroads of African and Eurasian Hominoidea. The article’s lead author is Shorouq F. Al-Ashqar with the Mansoura University Vertebrate Paleontology Center in Egypt.

Unfortunately, the article is currently blocked behind a paywall by Science, though Al-Ashqar explains in the abstract that Masripithecus is known from mandibular remains (jaw bones and associated teeth) and dates back to the Early Miocene, some 17-18 million years ago. She explains that her analysis suggests Masripithecus is “closer to crown hominoids than coeval fossil apes from East Africa” - that is to say, that Masripithecus may be more closely related to the living apes (chimps, gorillas, gibbons, orangutans and humans) than other fossil ape species known from East Africa.

Al-Ashqar concluded that the evidence from Masripithecus suggests that ape family may have “originated during the Early Miocene in the underexplored northeastern part of Afro-Arabia, rather than in eastern Africa or Eurasia.”