New findings suggest mankind roots are from Europe, not Africa

New Delhi : Evolution of humans gets a whole new twist with scientists finding that the actual birthplace of mankind is Europe and not Africa.

So far it was believed that humans have evolved themselves from the apes around seven million years ago in Central Africa.

Now, the scientists have discovered two fossils, about 7.2 million years of age, in Bulgaria and Greece which have characterstics of an ape like creature and also have human-like teeths.

The newly discovered ape-like creature has been named as Graecopithecus freybergi, with a nick name ‘El Graeco'. It suggests the humans had already started to evolve in Europe 200,000 years before the earliest African hominid.

An international team of researhers say that the findings will entirely change the history of human evolution with a new birthplace.