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Article: Revising human origins: a new fossil find adds one more member to the family tree. (Australopithecus ramidus)
- Article from:
- U.S. News & World Report
- Article date:
- October 3, 1994
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1994 All rights reserved. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Strolling on a barren Ethiopian plain one afternoon, University of Tokyo anthropologist Gen Suwa noticed a glittering object lying among the pebbles. It was not a gold nugget, but it was the anthropologist's version of striking it rich: a fossil molar from an extraordinarily primitive branch of the human family tree.
That shiny molar was the first piece in a mother lode of fossils that are among the most ancient human remains ever discovered, dating to some 4.4 million years ago. In the scientific journal Nature, Suwa and colleagues last week announced that the bones are from an entirely new species that is the oldest known ancestor of human beings. Indeed, the ...