OLDEST HUMAN FOSSIL FOUND (Hurrah! It ain't Ed's)
Ed Conrad (edconrad@prolog.net)
20 Nov 1996 13:21:26 GMT
> -- STOP THE PRESS! --
EARLIEST HUMAN FOSSIL FOUND
(Associated Press, Nov. 19, 1996)
NEW YORK (AP) -- An African jaw bone is the earliest positively dated
fossil in the human family, extending the age of the genus Homo by
400,000 years, scientists report.
The 2.333 million-year-old jaw was found near a scattering of crude
stone tools in fossil sediments in the Hadar highlands of northern
Ethiopia.
The link between the chopping tools and the species represented by the
jaw bone is not definitive, but may be the best evidence yet that the
first toolmakers were early members of the large-brained Homo group.
``It's propbably better than a bloody glove as circumstantial
evidence," David Bergun, a paleontologist from the University of
Toronto, said today.
(snip)
Kimblel, Donald Johnason and Robert Walter, all of the Institute of
Human Origins in Berkeley, Calif., led the research. Scientists from
Isarel and Canda also were involved in describing and dating the jaw,
which was discoverd in November 1994.
Their report is being published in the December issue of the Journal
of Human Evolution.
``It's an interesting find but it's not, I think, very amazingly new
and unexpected," said David Pilbeam of Harvard University, who was
not involved in writing the report.
Other suspected Homo fossils that may be of similiar antiquity have
been found in Kenya and Malawi, Kimbel said . But the Malawi fossil is
not dated as accurately as the Hadar jaw, whose age was determined
using a sophisticated radiometric method.
(snip)
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> Hmmm! Wonder what Ed Conrad is going to say about this?
> After all, it has been almost a half-day since the official
> announcement and we still haven't heard a disparaging
> word.
> Maybe, finally, we've shut him up.
> Let's keep our fingers crossed.
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