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RESEARCH
3.8-million-year-old skull discovered Scientists have discovered a 3.8-million-year-old hominin skull (pictured) in Ethiopia that could help to clarify the origins of Lucy, our famous forerunner. The specimen suggests that Lucy’s species coexisted with an ancestor in the ancient Ethiopian landscape. Most researchers think that Lucy’s species, Australopithecus afarensis, falls on the same branch of the evolutionary tree as an earlier species called Australopithecus anamensis. The idea is that A. anamensis gradually morphed into A. afarensis, implying that the two species never coexisted. The skull, described this week in Nature, suggests otherwise. The fossil’s facial features indicate that it belongs to A. anamensis, and strengthens the case that a previously discovered fossil, a 3.9-million-year-old face fragment found in the 1980s, belongs to A. afarensis. This suggests that the two species coexisted, after all. A. afarensis may have evolved from a small A. anamensis group before gradually outcompeting the wider A. anamensis population.
Ancient skull, Amazon fires and giraffe protections
3.8-million-year-old skull discovered Scientists have discovered a 3.8-million-year-old hominin skull (pictured) in Ethiopia that could help to clarify the origins of Lucy, our famous forerunner. The specimen suggests that Lucy’s species coexisted with an ancestor in the ancient Ethiopian landscape. Most researchers think that Lucy’s species, Australopithecus afarensis, falls on the same branch of the evolutionary tree as an earlier species called Australopithecus anamensis. The idea is that A. anamensis gradually morphed into A. afarensis, implying that the two species never coexisted. The skull, described this week in Nature, suggests otherwise. The fossil’s facial features indicate that it belongs to A. anamensis, and strengthens the case that a previously discovered fossil, a 3.9-million-year-old face fragment found in the 1980s, belongs to A. afarensis. This suggests that the two species coexisted, after all. A. afarensis may have evolved from a small A. anamensis group before gradually outcompeting the wider A. anamensis population.
Ancient skull, Amazon fires and giraffe protections
