Different Species of Human Ancestor Lived Near Lucy
Lucy and her kin weren't the only human ancestors to live in modern-day Ethiopia 3.3 million years ago, scientists say. They report that a different species, similar but not identical to Lucy's, was living nearby during the same time frame.
The study, appearing in this week's issue of the journal Nature, claims to provide "incontrovertible" evidence that multiple species of human ancestors, known as hominins, co-existed in east Africa in the age before the rise of our own species.
The newly named species is called Australopithecus deyiremeda, and is considered a close relative of Lucy's species, Australopithecus afarensis. In fact, the species name "deyiremeda" comes from the local Afar language's terms for "close" (deyi) and "relative" (remeda).
"Some colleagues might be skeptical about this species," lead author Yohannes Haile-Selassie, a paleoanthropologist at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, told NBC News in an email. "However, in terms of the presence of multiple hominins during the Middle Pliocene, their doubts end."
That's because Haile-Selassie and his colleagues previously found the traces of yet another hominin species in Ethiopia's Afar region the foot bones of a creature that was unlike Lucy , with opposable big toes. The researchers were following up on that discovery when they came upon the fossil teeth and jawbones that they now attribute to Australopithecus deyiremeda.
"When you are out in the field, you don't look for something specific, although you go out with some research questions in hand," Haile-Selassie said. "The specimens now assigned to the new species were found during the last two days of our 2011 field season. They were found in a sedimentary patch we never surveyed before."
The discovery site was just 22 miles (35 kilometers) from the place where Lucy's skeleton was found in 1974.
The team reconstructed the shape of the skull and determined that the creature's face would look different from Lucy's. "A. deyiremeda would have a less projecting muzzle," Haile-Selassie said.
He said the facial characteristics overlapped not only with those of Lucy, one of the world's best-known fossils of a human ancestor, but also with several other species found in east Africa such as Kenyanthropus platyops and early specimens from our own genus, Homo. That means some of the characteristics associated with Homo may have arisen earlier than previously thought.
The picture that emerges from this and other discoveries is far more complex than the stereotypical evolutionary chart that shows a linear progression from one human ancestor to the next. The traditional "tree" of human origins is looking more and more like a tangled bush, with a wide spectrum of similar species living alongside each other.
"Finding such taxonomic diversity raises the question of how multiple species could have co-existed over a long period in a stable ecosystem, particularly when they live in close geographic proximity," Fred Spoor, an evolutionary biologist who was not involved in the latest find, wrote in a commentary published in Nature.
Spoor suggested that the species might have been set apart in slightly different environmental niches, due to contrasting preferences in diet or habitat for example, meat vs. vegetables, or forest vs. grassland.
He also cautioned that the claim that Australopithecus deyiremeda is truly a new species, distinct from previously identified types of hominins, "must be confirmed by further study and fossil finds."
Just last week, a different research team reported the discovery of 3.3 million-year-old stone tools at a site known as Lomekwi 3, on the western shore of Lake Turkana in northern Kenya and scientists can't yet determine which species made those tools. Spoor says it could be Australopithecus deyiremeda, while Haile-Selassie thinks that Kenyanthropus platyops is the likelier suspect.
The fact that fresh finds and fresh mysteries are coming to light in east Africa 40 years after the discovery of Lucy's skeleton demonstrates that the story of human origins is far from finished.
Source: http://www.nbcnews.com./science/science-news/different-species-human-ancestor-lived-near-lucy-scientists-say-n365121
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Amazing what they can find about what went on hundreds, thousands and millionof years ago!
R W
I saw something about this on TV the other night but had not seen the details in this article
Thanks for sharing this information
It is amazing what can be learned from a few bones and where those bones are found
You never know!!!
Wow. An astonishing discovery!
I wonder if they were able to extract DNA to test for genetic differences. And while I'm not being a skeptic, I also wonder if they were just family differences. I know they know what they're talking about...
Still, our own family has several distinctive family traits, that vary between branches. My branch has ptero syndactylism, or "twin toes". It crops up on our side of the family, about as often as redheads.
The other side of the family are long and tall, and we're short. Have been for generations. Their antique furniture is HUGE, while mine fits me to a "t". (My husband sits in these chairs I have and feels like he is sitting in a kindergarten chair.)
I saw those tools, and to me, they didn't look like "worked stone", they looked like stone chips. I, too, can work stone, if all it takes is banging one rock against another to make chips...
I guess what I'm saying is that I just don't see it, but so what-- I'm not an expert, by any means.
I still believe Adam and Eve came from Mars.
Why not? Did you ever see the movie "Blue Lagoon" where two children were marooned on an uninhabited island? There's no reason they couldn't be the start of a civilization.
Great stuff RW.
A couple of weeks ago I ran across an article where Chinese geneticists had turned on or off some genes in a chicken which resulted in the creature having a skull very similar to that of a Velociraptor. There is great speculation that our DNA carries with it the blueprint of what we were millions of years ago, and what we will become millions of years in the future. If true, and science can learn to read it, it might be possible that we are carrying with us all of the lineage that dates back 230 some million years ago or longer.
Interesting. Thank you.
Dear Friend Raven Wing: Fascinating indeed. We need to know as much as we can about from where and whom we came.
That will help us going forward to identify strengths, and lead with them. Also to isolate weaknesses and shore them up.
There is an ancient Jewish Yemenite saying on point here.
"Min ha avar ateednu yiphtach".
"From the past our future derives".
Super contribution. Thanks.
Peace, Abundant Blessings, and the Power of Knowledge.
Enoch.