New Study Reveals Earliest Human Ancestors Came From Eastern Africa
A surprising new study revealed that the earliest human ancestors came from eastern Africa during a sudden climate change activity.
This was the finding of researchers while studying a 2.8-million-year-old Homo genus jawbone that was discovered in Ethiopia back in 2013, according to the Daily Mail.
Scientists said the fossil is the earliest example of the common ancestor for modern humans — the Homo sapiens, including their extinct relatives such as the Homo erectus and Neanderthals.
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The teeth that were found in the jawbone showed that the famous "Lucy" species died out as the land dried up, while the earliest humans thrived on grassy, open plains, thanks to rapid climate change.
"Although Lucy's species persisted through many environmental changes, it seems the species was unable to persist as really open environments spread in the Afar during the late Pliocene," said study co-author John Rowan.
The jawbone, known as "LD 350-1," was first discovered at Ledi-Geraru in the lower Awash Valley of Ethiopia. It was instrumental for researchers in reconstructing the environment of humans' ancient ancestor.
Paleoanthropologists made use of animal fossils to re-create what past environments were like. They also attempted to understand the life and diet during that time. If animal fossils showed that giraffes or monkeys mostly browsed on tree leaves, then it must mean they enjoyed woody trees and significant rainfall, they said.
"A growing body of evidence has hinted at this connection," said co-author Joshua Robinson, a postdoctoral human origins researcher at Arizona State University. "But, until now, we had no direct environmental data for the origins of Homo now that its been pushed back in time."
It was paleoanthropologist Donald Johanson who discovered Lucy one Sunday morning in late November 1974, reported the BBC, as a team of scientists were digging in an isolated spot in the Afar region of Ethiopia.
Scientists believed the discovery of the skeleton, which is older than three million years, rewrote the whole history of humanity.
