First ever report of two ancient apes living in Miocene Europe 11 million years ago

According to a study published June 7, 2024 in an open-access journal, ancient great apes in Germany co-existed due to the partitioning of resources in their environment. PLOS ONE Madelaine Böhme of Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Germany and David R. Begun, University of Toronto, Canada and colleagues.

The Hammerschmiede fossil site in Bavaria, Germany is best known for the exceptional remains of the ancient Danuvia ape dating to the late Miocene epoch, 11.6 million years ago. Other experts question the strength of the evidence to support whether or not Danuvius is a hominid or a new genus.

No Miocene site in Europe is known to have more than one species of fossil ape, and Hammerschmiede has been no exception until now. In this study, Böhme and colleagues identify a second ape species from the same stratigraphic layer as Danuvius.

This new ape is represented by the partial remains of two teeth and one patella, the size and shape of which differ from Danuvia and all other known apes. The authors named this new species Buronius manfredschmidi.

Based on the structure of the teeth and patella, the authors conclude that Buronius was a skilled climber who ate a diet of soft foods such as leaves. From the size of the fossils, the authors estimate a total body size of around 10 kg, making Buronia the smallest known ape.

These features suggest that Buronius had a different lifestyle than Danuvius, a larger-bodied species with a diet of harder foods. These differences probably allowed the two species to share habitat without competing for resources, similar to modern gibbons and orangutans sharing habitat in Borneo and Sumatra.

This is the first known example of a European Miocene fossil site with multiple ancient ape species, although the authors suggest that re-examination of other similar sites could reveal more examples of this cohabitation.

The authors add: “The new ape from Hammerschmiede, Buronius manfredschmidi, with a body weight of about 10 kg, is not only the smallest known crown ape, but also the first verified case of hominid syntopy in Europe. The leaf-eating Buronius shared a habitat with the omnivorous bipedal ape Danuvius guggenmosi.”