A group of researchers brought to light in Ethiopia ten fossil teeth belonging to a new species of the genre Australopithecus. The discovery, which occurred in the Afar region, throws new light on a crucial moment – and still little known – of human evolution. The teeth date back to about 2.65 million years agoan era in which, in the same area, the first such representatives also lived Homowhich also includes our species, Homo sapiens.
The discovery took place in the Ledi-Geraru research area in the north-east of Ethiopia. Here, paleontologists found Ten fossil teeth: Six molars, two incisors, a premolar and a canine. After a careful analysis, they concluded that these dental remains, belonging to two different individuals ,.
The Australopithecus They are among our oldest ancestors, hominids that had traits both similar to chimpanzees and human beings. This new species Just identified, according to scholars, but an evolutionary branch in its own right.
Always in the same area, the researchers found Three other teethslightly more recent (2.59 million years ago), which show such characteristics Homo. In particular, these teeth seem to be connected to a species already identified in 2013, thanks to the discovery of a jaw on the same site.
In Africa, at least five species of hominids lived simultaneously
What makes this discovery even more interesting is that, at that time, At least five different species of hominids populated Africa. In addition to the new species of Australopithecus and at the first Homoanother were already present Australopithecusa kind of Paranthropus (equipped with a cranial structure suitable for chewing hard foods), and a further Australopithecus in the south of the continent.
This complex evolutionary panorama challenges the classic vision that the human being would have evolved along one line. Second Brian Villmoarepaleoanthropologist of the University of Nevada and the main author of the study published on Naturehuman evolution “is similar to that of many other species, with continuous branchesmore than a single direct trajectory “.
Same lands, same time
The two species – that of Australopithecus just discovered and the first Homo – they lived in the same territory and in the same period. For this, the researchers are wondering if there may have been a direct competition.
As he explains Kaye ReedPaleoecologist of the Arizona State University and co-director of the project, the teeth are being analyzed to understand If the two species ate the same foods. If so, they may have fought for the same resources.
In the same area, in the past, they had already been found Rudimentary stone toolsprobably created by the first Homo. Today the Far region is a desert area, among the hottest on the planet. But 2.6 million years ago, it was very different: A land crossed by riverscovered with vegetation and inhabited by animals now extinct or moved elsewhere.
In that fertile landscape they lived elephants, hippos, horses, giraffes, pigs, antelopesas well as predators such as Hyenas and felines from the sloping teeth. A real “primordial savanna”, where different species of hominids shared the environment with a rich and diversified fauna.
To date the teeth, the researchers used a technique that exploits the decay of ARGON in feldspar crystals present in volcanic ashes: a precise method, which has made it possible to establish the age of the finds with great accuracy.
Not an anomaly, but one more branch in the tree of our history
According to the researchers, the new species of Australopithecus . Each new find does not rewrite human evolution from scratch, but adds A new branch with a much more intricate tree of what was thought.
As Kaye Reed explains again:
Each fossil is a piece of a puzzle that tells us a story made of crossings, extinctions, cohabitations and disappeared. Not a line, but a network.
Also the famous Lucydiscovered in 1974 in Ethiopia, belonged to a different species: Australopithecus Aparensisabout about 3.18 million years ago. The teeth just discovered and show different characteristics, confirming the variety of the hominids present at that time.
