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First known human’s remains discovered in Ethiopia

The lower jaw bone and teeth discovered are the oldest remains of the genus Homo, modern humans’ lineage. Fossil hunters spotted the ancient jaw sticking out of a slope in the dusty, arid region, about 250 miles from the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.

When the individual to whom the bone belonged walked the planet, this Ethiopian region was open grassland and shrubs fed by tree-lined rivers and wetlands.The period of human evolution between two and three million years ago is poorly understood and represented by a sparse fossil record. This is the time when humans began the transformation from ape-like mammals to more modern forms capable of intricate tool usage, who would eventually become modern homo sapiens.

“This is the the first inkling we have of that transition to modern behavior. We were no longer solving problems with our bodies but with our brains,” said Brian Villmoare at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas.

The fossil was found at Ledi-Geraru, only about 40 miles from Hadar, where the famous “Lucy” fossil was found in 1974. Lucy belonged to a three million year old species called Australopithecus afarensis, a forerunner of the homo lineage. The current fossil shares many traits with Lucy, but crucially shows traits in common with the homo lineage, such as a shallow chin bone.

The ape-like Australopithecus afarensis is thought to have died out at the time, to be replaced by two species, namely Paranthropus, which had a small brain, large teeth and strong jaw muscles, and another species with larger brains, which ultimately led to homo sapiens. “By finding this jaw bone we’ve figured out where that trajectory started,” said Villamoare. “This is the first Homo. It marks in all likelihood a major adaptive transition.”

The fossil was found by Ethiopian student Chalachew Seyoum. He told BBC News that he was “stunned” when he saw the fossil. “The moment I found it, I realised that it was important, as this is the time period represented by few (human) fossils in Eastern Africa.”

What kind of environment did these individuals live in? An earlier study from the Pennsylvania State University described the ecosystem at the time. “We found a large number of fossils of grazing animals, similar to modern wildebeests and zebras, which show that early Homo lived in an area of grasslands, similar to the modern Serengeti Plains in Tanzania, except that this habitat had rivers and lakes as we have fish, hippos, and crocodiles, as well as antelope that lived near grasses inundated with water,” co-author Kaye Reed of the Institute of Human Origins and School of Human Evolution and Social Change, told Discovery News. “There were very few trees, however, except possibly a few near the water sources.”

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