Since this was dated to be at ~50million years on the carbon date, it was probably in Germany because during that time it was when the continents had signs of splitting. Whatever it was, it made its way up most likely to emigration of some methods, so you might not be too far off on your idea of Africa, Botti.
I was actually going over this the other day, in contrast of homologous structures vs analogous structures.
Since the appendages/fingers of "Ida" shows analogous structural differences.. meaning that they are shaped or formed different between two species, but their function is the same. It is like say a bird's wing vs an insect's wing. The two serve the same purpose, but are structured completely different.
In general rule of thumb, when it seems it is similar does not mean that Ida is what evolved and made humans what they are, when they refer to ancestor its referring to something similar to the definition of
cladogenesis, when one species branches off into multiple other species. Some of those eventually die off due to natural selection.
It's like, instead of thinking about monkey -> ape -> caveman -> human, it should be something like this:
