Four million-year-old teeth and bones unearthed in Ethiopia may be older than Lucy, the ape-man skeleton found 32 years ago, and may help clarify the link between primates and humans in the evolutionary chain.
The latest fossils are part of the human ancestor group called Australopithecus anamensis, which preceded the afarensis species to which Lucy belonged. Scientists believe this new species lived somewhere between when Lucy did — 3.2 million years ago — and fossils believed to be one of the earliest phases of human evolution as old as 4.4 million years.
The find, discussed in the journal Nature this week by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, draw a better link between the Lucy species and an earlier form of man called Ardipithecus ramidus. With this find, fossils from all three have been found within walking distance of each other.
“It fills the gap in the fossil record there in Ethiopia,” said Tim White, co-director of the Human Evolution Research Center at Berkeley, who took part in the analytical studies of Lucy in the 1970s.
Scientists made the discovery in the Middle Awash valley of Ethiopia’s Afar region, about 37 miles (60 kilometers) northeast of where the skeleton nicknamed Lucy was discovered in 1974.
The fossil discoveries, the most recent of which were in December, include about 30 pieces from at least eight individuals, White said. They are mostly teeth and jawbone fragments and include hand and foot bones and a thigh bone. They may be about 4.1 million years old.
One set of teeth was shattered by erosion, and scientists had to reconstruct them, White said.
He said the new anamensis fossils help to define the origin of the ape-man genus and gives scientists a more complete picture of human evolution from one region.
“It really provides the answer to `Where did the Lucy species come from?”’ White said.
By Shannon D. HarringtonBloomberg.com