Finding early-early apes in Turkey is cool but it in no way challenges the out of Africa hypothesis unless you’re really grasping at straws wanting that hypothesis to be false. I don’t even know why that’s part of the story. It’s just as cool and much less speculative to frame it as chimp-like apes living in Turkey/Asia.
My initial reaction was one of suspicion, but the story as it was laid out seemed pretty persuasive. One detail that swayed me was the reported lack of fossils in Africa of early hominin species:
While the remains of early hominines are abundant in Europe and Anatolia, they are completely absent from Africa until the first hominin appeared there about seven million years ago.
Is there another explanation for why these fossils might have been missing despite early hominines inhabiting Africa?
Türkiye may have an environment that is very suitable for the preservation of fossil, and one where said fossils remain near the surface. Africa is huge, but may lack areas that both has those hominids and preserved their fossils well.
Fire example, there are very few footprints on sidewalks, but lots in the mud beside them - should we conclude people must prefer to walk in the mud?
>Is there another explanation for why these fossils might have been missing despite early hominines inhabiting Africa?
Most biological and organic things decompose quickly. Every time we find a fossil, we are winning an insanely rigged lottery. We barely have significant remains from 10k year old towns, so you can't really take any info from a supposed lack of fossils
i always open to any new findings about it. if it turns out that it really is a new hominid, then great! scientists will have more than enough on their plates. if not, then it's also ok! just keep digging and digging and analysing until something worthy of closer inspection come up.