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New Hominin Species Discovered in Ethiopia


@DCGoldPants

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Meet Australopithecus deyiremeda, a previously unknown human ancestor species who lived alongside Lucy’s species, Australopithecus afarensis, in Ethiopia over 3 million years ago. The jawbones and a few isolated teeth of the new hominin (that’s us and our extinct ancestors) are described in Nature this week. 
 
On March 4, 2011, a left upper jaw complete with a few teeth (pictured above) was discovered on top of sandstone in the Burtele area of Woranso-Mille in the central Afar region of Ethiopia. Later that day and the day after, two lower jaws were discovered: one was found in the Burtele area in two pieces (the left half is pictured below to the right), the other was found at a locality called Waytaleyta about two kilometers away. Based on the geology, radiometric dating, paleomagnetic data, and the rate of sediment deposition, the layer the fossils had weathered out of was between the ages of 3.3 and 3.5 million years. The area is just 35 kilometers north of Hadar, where Lucy was discovered.

 

 

 

 
More from the link. This stuff is awesome.
 
 
HOLOTYPE.jpg?itok=uMs2QusL
 
PARATYPE.jpg
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At first I thought you were attacking a dead guy as part of an argument.  Better a rhetorical device than a sandwich though, chimp family = panini?  

 

Neat discovery, amazing to me that what they can figure out from the smallest bone fragment.  

 

 

It is amazing  - with the understanding, of course, that new information may require them to change their thinking.  It's an ever evolving field.

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