From “New Kenyan Fossils Shed Light On Early Human Evolution” (Science Daily, August 8, 2012), we learn,
Exciting new fossils discovered east of Lake Turkana confirm that there were two additional species of our genus — Homo — living alongside our direct human ancestral species, Homo erectus, almost two million years ago. The finds, announced in the scientific journal Nature on August 9th, include a face, a remarkably complete lower jaw, and part of a second lower jaw.
They were uncovered between 2007 and 2009 by the Koobi Fora Research Project (KFRP), led by Meave and Louise Leakey. KFRP’s fieldwork was facilitated by the Turkana Basin Institute (TBI), and supported by the National Geographic Society, which has funded the KFRP since 1968.
And they are just in time, too.
Neanderthal man turned out to have interbred so much with us that it is unclear he is a separate species, and Flores man just turned out to be pygmy humans.
The search for the fabled missing link continues unabated. No subject, no story.
Photo by Fred Spoor.