A fossilized lower ape jaw was discovered in the southwestern Sinai, Egypt, has challenged the origin of modern apes, including humans, according to a study published in the journal Science. The fossil, discovered at the Wadi Maghara site, belonged to a new genus and species named Masripithecus moghraensis. Researchers have dated the bone to the Early Miocene epoch, roughly 17 to 18 million years ago. The first author of the study, Shorouq Al-Ashqar, a paleontologist at Egypt’s Mansoura University, described the discovery as significant and surprising, highlighting the incomplete picture of ape origins. The study also found that M. moghrensis is closely related to the last common ancestor of living apes and that both lived in the roughly the same place.