ETHIOPIA: ‘NEW SPECIES’ OF EARLY HUMAN FOUND

Posted May 29, 2015

A new species of hominin has recently been uncovered in the Afar region, located in Ethiopia’s north-east. The hominin is a branch of the hominoids family, which contains three subgroups that divide humans and our ancestors from chimpanzees and gorillas. The discovery of these remains has now cast further doubt over the theory that our lineage stems from just one early human species.

The jawbones and teeth of this new species, which has now been named Australopithecus deyiremeda, is thought to be around 3.5 million years old and belong to an individual who possessed both ape-like and human features. The jaw found is robust and has smaller teeth, differing greatly to other remains that have been found in this region.

The discovery of these bones adds further evidence to suggest that the Australopithecus deyiremeda coexisted with other early human species such as ‘Lucy’, an Australopithecus afarensis, which was discovered in 1974.

Lucy was similarly uncovered in Ethiopia’s Afar region and was one the first nearly complete skeletons of the early hominin species to be found. The bone structure of Lucy’s knees and pelvis show that she walked on two legs, something that differentiates her from the chimpanzee family, and places her firmly within the early human category.

The discovery of the Australopithecus deyiremeda is just one example of another species of hominin discovered in Africa over the last 15 years. Discoveries in Chad and Kenya, have cast doubt onto this direct lineage theory associated with Lucy; however, the discovery of this new species, in the same region, means that this hypothesis will almost certainly have to be re-thought.

According to researchers, the next important step is to find remains that tell us how these two Afar species coexisted – whether they mixed with one another or avoided each other.