So a controversial footprint suggests. From Per Ahlberg & Matthew Robert Bennett at RealClearScience:
If – and for many it is a big if – the tracks of Trachilos [current apparent ancestor] were indeed made by an early human ancestor, then the biogeographical range of our early ancestors would increase to encompass the eastern Mediterranean. Crete was not an island at this time but attached to the Greek mainland, and the environment of the Mediterranean region was very different from now.
The discovery comes just months after another study reported the discovery of 7m-year-old Greek and Bulgarian fossil teeth from a hominin ape dubbed “El Graeco”. This is the oldest fossil of a human-like ape, which has led some to suggest that humans started to evolve in Europe hundreds of thousands of years before they started to evolve in Africa. But many scientists have remained sceptical about this claim – as are we. The presence of Miocene hominids in Europe and Africa simply shows that both continents are possible “homelands” for the group. In theory, El Graeco could be responsible for the Trachilos foorprints but without any limb or foot bones it is impossible to tell. More.
Sounds like bad business conditions for splintering lecterns with the Truth about Human Evolution.
Also: from Matthew Robert Bennett and Per Ahlberg at the Conversation:
The period corresponds to a geological time interval known as the Miocene. The footprints are small tracks made by someone walking upright on two legs – there are 29 of them in total. They range in size from 94mm to 223mm, and have a shape and form very similar to human tracks. Non-human ape footprints look very different; the foot is shaped more like a human hand, with the big toe attached low on the side of the sole and sticking out sideways.
See also: Fossil human footprints challenge established theories: Non-ape feet ScienceDaily on same find
and
New Scientist: Evolution “more baffling than we thought” We all smack our heads … whodathunkit?