3 to 4 million years ago, in the area of present-day’s Ethiopia, there was a dense forest, in places intersected by the savannah. Through a sandy area, a river flowed into a lake in Miro Dora. In the following millions of years, the remnants of volcanic activity and gullies completely changed the appearance of this region, however, while the forest, lake and river still existed, early human ancestors were still living in this exact spot circa 3.8 million years ago, and they were completely unknown until now.
As the Cleveland Museum of Natural History revealed, a team of archaeologists led by Dr Yohannes Haile-Selassie, a palaeontologist born in Ethiopia, known for having had a lucky streak in discovering remains of human ancestors, had made a discovery reported by all world media. The team discovered 230 hominin fossils aged between 3 and 3.8 million years, in the course of 15 years of work, in this region of Ethiopia, and among the remains, they also found a skull of an early human ancestor who lived around 3.8 million years ago.
This is the Australopithecus anamensis specimen – the oldest member of the Australopithecus species – the species which lived before the famous ‘Lucy’ specimen (Australopithecus afarensis). Lucy is a 3.2 million-year-old fossil of a somewhat different face, which was discovered mere 55 kilometres away. Lucy also used legs and foraged for food across the savannah, and it was the oldest human ancestor fossil at the time of its discovery in 1974.
The Australopithecus afarensis fossils are extremely rare, so the discovery of the skull (which occurred in 2016 but was revealed after thorough investigation) is paramount to winning the lottery in the world of palaeontology. By analysing other remains, the team concluded that two species Australopithecus anamensis and Australopithecus afarensis, coexisted on the Earth for at least 100,000 years.
The Australopithecus species lived in Africa 2 – 4 million years ago. They emerged several million years after human ancestors broke away from primates which gave birth to present-day’s chimpanzees. They used legs, but they were much shorter and had significantly smaller brains. Australopithecus anamensis was originally defined in 1995 – it was clear that it was a monkey-like species, but only this week did researchers reveal the missing face.
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Photo: Matt Crow, Cleveland Museum Of Natural History