Scientists discover ape-man missing link
Manchester Evening News, UK
______________________
A cache of fossils found in an Ethiopian desert are to provide the missing link between 3.5 million-year-old ape-men and earlier human ancestors.
The bones belong to the most primitive species of Australopithecus, known as Au. anamensis, and date from about 4.1 million years ago.
Australopithecenes have been dubbed "ape-men" because they were hairy, short, small-brained, and big-toothed but walked on two legs.
The newly discovered fossils fill the gap between Australopithecenes and the much more ape-like Ardipithecenes, which lived between 4.4 million and 7 million years ago.
Since the first Australopithecus skull, the Taung child, was found in South Africa 82 years ago, more of the hominid's fossils spanning a three million-year time period have turned up all over Africa.
The most famous was "Lucy", a 3.5 foot adult skeleton, discovered in the Afar desert of eastern Ethiopia in 1974.
The creature, named Au. afarensis, lived between 3.6 million and 3 million years ago and was unearthed in the same region that yielded the latest finds.
Apr 13, 2006
Manchester Evening News, UK
______________________
A cache of fossils found in an Ethiopian desert are to provide the missing link between 3.5 million-year-old ape-men and earlier human ancestors.
The bones belong to the most primitive species of Australopithecus, known as Au. anamensis, and date from about 4.1 million years ago.
Australopithecenes have been dubbed "ape-men" because they were hairy, short, small-brained, and big-toothed but walked on two legs.
The newly discovered fossils fill the gap between Australopithecenes and the much more ape-like Ardipithecenes, which lived between 4.4 million and 7 million years ago.
Since the first Australopithecus skull, the Taung child, was found in South Africa 82 years ago, more of the hominid's fossils spanning a three million-year time period have turned up all over Africa.
The most famous was "Lucy", a 3.5 foot adult skeleton, discovered in the Afar desert of eastern Ethiopia in 1974.
The creature, named Au. afarensis, lived between 3.6 million and 3 million years ago and was unearthed in the same region that yielded the latest finds.
Apr 13, 2006
