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Fossil find fills evolution gap
4-million-year-old teeth, bones found
Belong to ape-like man-creature
Apr. 13, 2006. 05:43 AM
LONDONAn international team of scientists has discovered 4.1-million-year-old fossils in eastern Ethiopia that fill a missing gap in human evolution.
The teeth and bones belong to a primitive species of Australopithecus known as Au. anamensis, an ape-man creature that walked on two legs.
Because the fossils are from the same human ancestral hot spot in Ethiopia as remains from seven other human-like species, scientists can now fill in the gaps for the most complete evolutionary chain so far.
"We just found the chain of evolution, the continuity through time," said Ethiopian anthropologist Berhane Asfaw, co-author of the study being reported today in the journal Nature.
"One form evolved to another. This is evidence of evolution in one place through time."
The species, Australopithecus anamensis is not new, but its location is what helps explain the giant leap from one early phase of human-like development to the next, scientists say.
All eight species were within an easy day's walk of each other.
"It's like 12 frames of a home movie, but a home movie covering 6 million years," said study lead author Tim White, co-director of Human Evolution Research Center at University of California at Berkeley. Fossils in the region called the Middle Awash cover three major phases of human development.
Modern man belongs to the genus Homo, which is a subgroup in the family of hominids. What evolved into Homo was likely the genus Australopithecus (once called "man-ape''), which includes the famed 3.2 million-year-old "Lucy" fossil found three decades ago.
A key candidate for the genus that evolved into Australopithecus is called Ardipithecus. And today's finding is important in bridging but not completely the gap between Australopithecus and Ardipithecus.
In 1994, a 4.4 million-year-old partial skeleton of the species Ardipithecus ramidus the most recent Ardipithecus species was found 10 kilometres from the latest discovery.
"This appears to be the link between Australopithecus and Ardipithecus as two different species," White said. The noticeable difference between the phases of man can be seen in Australopithecus' bigger chewing teeth to eat harder food, he said.
Fossil find fills evolution gap
4-million-year-old teeth, bones found
Belong to ape-like man-creature
Apr. 13, 2006. 05:43 AM
LONDONAn international team of scientists has discovered 4.1-million-year-old fossils in eastern Ethiopia that fill a missing gap in human evolution.
The teeth and bones belong to a primitive species of Australopithecus known as Au. anamensis, an ape-man creature that walked on two legs.
Because the fossils are from the same human ancestral hot spot in Ethiopia as remains from seven other human-like species, scientists can now fill in the gaps for the most complete evolutionary chain so far.
"We just found the chain of evolution, the continuity through time," said Ethiopian anthropologist Berhane Asfaw, co-author of the study being reported today in the journal Nature.
"One form evolved to another. This is evidence of evolution in one place through time."
The species, Australopithecus anamensis is not new, but its location is what helps explain the giant leap from one early phase of human-like development to the next, scientists say.
All eight species were within an easy day's walk of each other.
"It's like 12 frames of a home movie, but a home movie covering 6 million years," said study lead author Tim White, co-director of Human Evolution Research Center at University of California at Berkeley. Fossils in the region called the Middle Awash cover three major phases of human development.
Modern man belongs to the genus Homo, which is a subgroup in the family of hominids. What evolved into Homo was likely the genus Australopithecus (once called "man-ape''), which includes the famed 3.2 million-year-old "Lucy" fossil found three decades ago.
A key candidate for the genus that evolved into Australopithecus is called Ardipithecus. And today's finding is important in bridging but not completely the gap between Australopithecus and Ardipithecus.
In 1994, a 4.4 million-year-old partial skeleton of the species Ardipithecus ramidus the most recent Ardipithecus species was found 10 kilometres from the latest discovery.
"This appears to be the link between Australopithecus and Ardipithecus as two different species," White said. The noticeable difference between the phases of man can be seen in Australopithecus' bigger chewing teeth to eat harder food, he said.