Team Says Fossils Fill Gap in Human Evolution
From Times Staff and Wire Reports
An international team of scientists has discovered 4.1-million-year-old fossils in eastern Ethiopia that fill a missing gap in human evolution, they reported in the journal Nature.
The teeth and bones belong to a primitive species known as Australopithecus anamensis, an ape-man creature that walked on two legs.
“This new discovery closes the gap between the fully blown australopithecines and earlier forms we call Ardipithecus,” said anthropologist Tim White of UC Berkeley. White said the large teeth suggest the hominid was able to eat fibrous foods and roots; earlier species of Ardipithecus had smaller teeth that restricted their diet.
