Fossil discovery fills in the gap in human evolution process!
'We just found the chain of evolution, the continuity through time...’
One very recent discovery has unearthed some big secrets about how human ancestors made the giant leap from one species to another. The findings were reported in the scientific journal "Nature". The fossil discovery in 2006 unveiled how actually the complete chain of human evolution till date are linked together. Scientists have discovered a fossil that is around 4.2 million years old in northeastern Ethiopia. The discovery has proved to be one of the most significant fossil discoveries so far, as it helped the researchers fill the gaps of how the ancestors of human made the big leap from one species to the next advanced one.
This newly discovered fossil is of the species Australopithecus Anamensis that had been found in the region of the Middle Awash, where as many as seven other species close to human in appearance, spanning around 6 million years and three major phases of human development that had already been discovered previously. With this discovery, the scientists got more detailed clue about the link of the gaps between some prehistoric species in the evolutionary process of human. In a telephonic interview from Addis Ababa, the study co-author and Ethiopian anthropologist Berhane Asfaw said, "We just found the chain of evolution, the continuity through time, One form evolved to another." According to the scientists, the species Anamensis is not new, but its location is what helped the scientists to explain the shift from one early phase of human-like development to the next advanced phase. This way the complete chain of human evolution process has been discovered, which is really a path-breaking innovation in the world of science! Until this amazing discovery was made and analyzed, scientists had only the snapshots of human evolution scattered hither and thither all around the world. This is one most vital finding, because it tied up everything with a single chain, making those disorganized snapshots more of a miniature movie of the human evolution. “It’s like 12 frames of a home movie, but a home movie covering 6 million years... The key here is the sequences. It’s about a mile thickness of rocks in the Middle Awash and in it we can see all three phases of human evolution,” said study lead author Tim White, co-director of Human Evolution Research Center at University of California at Berkeley.
The modern man falls under the genus "Homo", which is a subgroup of the family of "Hominids". As per the research, What actually evolved into "Homo" might be the genus called "Australopithecus" (once known as “man-ape”), which includes the famed 3.2 million-year-old “Lucy” fossil that was found around mid 70's. The key component for the genus that evolved into "Australopithecus" was "Ardipithecus". What is more imjportant is this newest finding bridges, although not completely, the gap that existed between Australopithecus and Ardipithecus.
'We just found the chain of evolution, the continuity through time...’
One very recent discovery has unearthed some big secrets about how human ancestors made the giant leap from one species to another. The findings were reported in the scientific journal "Nature". The fossil discovery in 2006 unveiled how actually the complete chain of human evolution till date are linked together. Scientists have discovered a fossil that is around 4.2 million years old in northeastern Ethiopia. The discovery has proved to be one of the most significant fossil discoveries so far, as it helped the researchers fill the gaps of how the ancestors of human made the big leap from one species to the next advanced one.
This newly discovered fossil is of the species Australopithecus Anamensis that had been found in the region of the Middle Awash, where as many as seven other species close to human in appearance, spanning around 6 million years and three major phases of human development that had already been discovered previously. With this discovery, the scientists got more detailed clue about the link of the gaps between some prehistoric species in the evolutionary process of human. In a telephonic interview from Addis Ababa, the study co-author and Ethiopian anthropologist Berhane Asfaw said, "We just found the chain of evolution, the continuity through time, One form evolved to another." According to the scientists, the species Anamensis is not new, but its location is what helped the scientists to explain the shift from one early phase of human-like development to the next advanced phase. This way the complete chain of human evolution process has been discovered, which is really a path-breaking innovation in the world of science! Until this amazing discovery was made and analyzed, scientists had only the snapshots of human evolution scattered hither and thither all around the world. This is one most vital finding, because it tied up everything with a single chain, making those disorganized snapshots more of a miniature movie of the human evolution. “It’s like 12 frames of a home movie, but a home movie covering 6 million years... The key here is the sequences. It’s about a mile thickness of rocks in the Middle Awash and in it we can see all three phases of human evolution,” said study lead author Tim White, co-director of Human Evolution Research Center at University of California at Berkeley.
The modern man falls under the genus "Homo", which is a subgroup of the family of "Hominids". As per the research, What actually evolved into "Homo" might be the genus called "Australopithecus" (once known as “man-ape”), which includes the famed 3.2 million-year-old “Lucy” fossil that was found around mid 70's. The key component for the genus that evolved into "Australopithecus" was "Ardipithecus". What is more imjportant is this newest finding bridges, although not completely, the gap that existed between Australopithecus and Ardipithecus.
Comments