Source: Deutsche Nachrichten
A research team from the Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment at the University of Tübingen and Leiden University in the Netherlands has examined a tooth from the Schöningen archaeological site in Lower Saxony. In their study, now published in the journal “Quaternary Environments and Humans,” the researchers show that the specimen is a baby tooth from a young macaque (Macaca cf. sylvanus) that lived in this region more than 300,000 years ago. The tooth therefore represents the northernmost evidence of this primate species in continental Europe.
Barbary macaques (Macaca sylvanus) are the only extant macaque species native to North Africa, and they are also found in Gibraltar at the southern tip of Europe. All other species of macaque live in Asia. Today, approximately 8,000 of these animals still live in the wild in deciduous and coniferous forests, primarily in the mountainous regions of Algeria and Morocco. The small but famous population in Gibraltar was originally introduced by humans. During the Pleistocene, however, the range of these primates extended across large parts of southern and central Europe, as shown by fossil finds from Spain, Italy, and Greece all the way to Germany and England.
“The small tooth we examined was recovered during the 2004 excavation campaign from lakeshore sediments at the Schöningen site in Lower Saxony. This site is world-renowned for its well-preserved Paleolithic archaeological and palaeontological remains and provides sensational insights into the environment and climatic conditions of that time,” reports Dr. Jordi Serangeli of the Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Paleoenvironment at the University of Tübingen, who heads the excavation in Schöningen.
“The tooth is almost completely preserved and less than one centimeter long,” adds study leader Prof. Dr. Thijs van Kolfschoten of Leiden University. “It is the deciduous molar of an approximately one-year-old macaque (Macaca cf. sylvanus), a species very closely related to the modern Barbary macaque (Macaca sylvanus). Schöningen is located around 1,800 kilometers farther north than the species’ current northernmost range. The tooth thus represents one of the northernmost remains of macaques from the Middle Pleistocene and the northernmost find from continental Europe.”
The Barbary macaque’s current habitat is characterized by a Mediterranean climate with warm, dry summers and relatively humid winters. The population in the high-mountain regions of central Morocco shows that the species is quite tolerant of very cold weather, with winter temperatures dropping as low as minus 22 degrees Celsius in January. “Their current distribution in small and sometimes isolated refuges in Morocco (the Middle Atlas, High Atlas, and Rif Mountains) and Algeria (the Chiffa Gorge, and the Small and Greater Kabylie regions) reflects the availability of remnant habitat rather than their natural range. Thanks in part to the find from Schöningen, we now know that the animals’ range used to be significantly larger in the past,” explains Serangeli.
Modern macaques primarily consume a plant-based diet, including flowers, fruits, seeds, seedlings, and leaves, supplemented by animal-based food sources such as snails, insects, fish, eggs, and small vertebrates. Although they are ecologically dependent on trees, these sociable, diurnal primates spend most of the daylight hours on the ground, only retreating into the trees to escape danger. “About 310,000 years ago, the landscape along the shore of the ancient lake in Schöningen was an open woodland with stands of birch and pine,” says Serangeli. “This is evidenced by comprehensive environmental analyses of the site. Average summer and winter air temperatures were roughly the same as today, although winters were at least one degree Celsius colder. This hints at a more pronounced continental climate.”
The genus Macaca first evolved in the late Miocene, about 16 million years ago, presumably in North Africa. The Barbary macaque then spread throughout the Mediterranean region and farther north to what is now the Netherlands and Germany. “The species was widespread in Europe over a very long period of time. Several Barbary macaque remains have even been found in England,” explains van Kolfschoten. “In northern Germany, the animals had likely reached the northern limit of their potential range. The range of Barbary macaques later decreased dramatically until they became completely extinct in Europe during the last Ice Age. The reasons for this included climate change, habitat loss, and likely increasing pressure from another primate species: early humans.”
Today, the Barbary macaque is critically endangered. “The Barbary macaques’ natural habitat is continuously shrinking, and in addition, their young are being ruthlessly hunted down to be sold as pets,” reports Serangeli. “As primates, Barbary macaques are also among our closest relatives. We must save these fascinating animals, which were once part of Europe’s biodiversity, from ultimately becoming extinct.”
Publication: van Kolfschoten, T., Verheijen, I, Serangeli, J. 2026. The first primate (Macaca cf. sylvanus) from Schöningen (Germany). Quaternary Environments and Humans.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.qeh.2026.100116