| Themes > Science > Life Sciences > Physical Anthropology > Pre-Historic Man > Human Antiquity Update > The Human Lineage Established |
November, 1996 The Institute of Human Origins in Berkeley, California announed the discovery from Hadar in northern Ethiopia of a mandible that is clearly from a member of genus Homo. It is dated at 2.33 million years ago and was found in association with stone flakes and chopping tools. This is the first association of early Homo fossils and stone tools this early, although the discoverers admit that there is no definitive way to tell if the species represented by the fossil made the tools. The fossil fills a large gap in the hominid record between A. afarensis and the earliest Homo species, habilis and rudolfensis. The new find has not been assigned to a species. As expected, there is some talk of its being a new species. A full report will be in the December issue of The Journal of Human Evolution. The announcement was covered by the November 19 issue of The New York Times. |
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