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African find 'may fill gap'
11/07/2007 07:48 - (SA)
Addis Ababa - Ethiopian scientists
said on Tuesday they have discovered hominid fossil fragments
dating from between 3.5 million and 3.8 million years ago in
what could fill a crucial gap in the understanding of human
evolution.
Ethiopian archaeologist Yohannes Haile Selassie said the
find included several complete jaws and one partial skeleton and
were unearthed in the Afar desert at Woranso-Mille, near where
the famous fossil skeleton known as Lucy was found in 1974.
"This is a major finding that could fill a gap in human
evolution," he told a news conference in Addis Ababa.
"The fossil hominids from the Woranso-Mille area sample a
time period that is poorly known in human evolutionary study."
Researchers say the area, about 230km northeast
of Addis, boasts the most continuous record of human evolution.
Last year, an international team of scientists unveiled the
discovery of 4.1 million-year-old fossils in the region.
Lucy, the most famous find, lived between 3.3 million and
3.6 million years ago. But Yohannes said Afar had yielded early
hominid fossil remains spanning the last six million years.
"This has placed Ethiopia in the forefront of
paleoanthropology," he told reporters.
"Ethiopia is known to the world as the cradle of humankind."
- Reuters
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