NEW YORK: The scientists have discovered fossil in Ethiopia. The studies reveal that humans emerged 400, 000 years earlier than previously thought. The jawbone is estimated to be 2.8 million years old which is a significant find because the earliest fossil of the Homo genus is 2.3 million years old.
The previous fossil was found less than 32 kilometres from the new one.
“In spite of a lot of searching, fossils on the Homo lineage older than two million years ago are very rare,” said Dr Brian Villmoare, one of the fossil-hunters, according to Sky.
“To have a glimpse of the very earliest phase of our lineage’s evolution is particularly exciting.”
Dr William Kimbel, director of the Institute of Human Origins at Arizona State University, said that the new fossil narrows the evolutionary gap between the first Homo genus and Australopithecus.
“It’s an excellent case of a transitional fossil in a critical time period in human evolution.”
The findings have appeared in the online version of the Science journal.
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