On 17 September, Prof. Nikolai Spassov from the National Museum of Natural History gave a lecture at BAS entitled “The first bipedal hominids originated in the Balkans, not in Africa”. The lecture took place as part of the academic seminar “Current Issues in Science”.

Prof. Spassov is a zoologist, palaeontologist and palaeoanthropologist. He is the author of more than 280 scientific publications, many of which have appeared in leading international journals. His main contributions are in the fields of mammalian systematics and evolution, palaeozoogeography and early human evolution.

During his lecture, Prof. Spassov examined one of the key issues in the field of palaeoanthropology which has long been the subject of serious debate: the time and place of the origin of the first bipedal hominids, that is, the evolutionary lineage (Tribus Hominini) leading directly to modern humans. For many decades, Africa has been regarded as the cradle of humanity and the place of origin of the first bipedal hominids. A ten-year study by an international team led by Prof. Nikolai Spassov puts forward the theory that their first steps were taken in the Balkans. The team presented a unique find: a femur which exhibits the characteristics of a bipedal creature. According to the study, this creature was already capable of walking on two legs 7.2 million years ago. The hypothesis suggests that, alongside this fauna, the earliest bipedal hominins also migrated to Africa, and human evolution continued.

A scientific paper on the discovery: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12549-025-00691-0.

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