Closing more gaps

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Skull discovery could fill origins gap

Fri Mar 24, 11:02 AM ET

A hominid skull discovered in Ethiopia could fill the gap in the search
for the origins of the human race, a scientist said on Friday.

The cranium, found near the city of Gawis, 500 km (300 miles) southeast
of the capital Addis Ababa, is estimated to be 200,000 to 500,000 years
old.

The skull appeared "to be intermediate between the earlier Homo erectus
and the later Homo sapiens," Sileshi Semaw, an Ethiopian research
scientist at the Stone Age Institute at Indiana University, told a news
conference in Addis Ababa.

It was discovered two months ago in a small gully at the Gawis river
drainage basin in Ethiopia's Afar region, southeast of the capital.

Sileshi said significant archaeological collections of stone tools and
numerous fossil animals were also found at Gawis.

"(It) opens a window into an intriguing and important period in the
development of modern humans," Sileshi said.

Over the last 50 years, Ethiopia has been a hot bed for archaeological
discoveries.

Hadar, located near Gawis, is where in 1974 U.S. scientist Donald
Johnson found the 3.2 million year old remains of "Lucy," described by
scientists as one of the greatest archaeological discoveries in the
world.

Lucy is Ethiopia's world-acclaimed archaeological find. The discovery of
the almost complete hominid skeleton was a landmark in the search for
the origins of humanity.

On the shores of what was formerly a lake in 1967, two Homo sapien
skulls dating back 195,000 years were unearthed. The discovery pushed
back the known date of mankind, suggesting that modern man and his older
precursor existed side by side.

Sileshi said while different from a modern human, the braincase, upper
face and jaw of the cranium have unmistakeable anatomical evidence that
belong to human ancestry.

"The Gawis cranium provides us with the opportunity to look at the face
of one of our ancestors," he added.




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http://tinyurl.com/lukvu