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The following tables give an overview of notable finds of hominin fossils and remains relating to human evolution, beginning with the formation of the tribe Hominini (the divergence of the human and chimpanzee lineages) in the late Miocene, roughly 7 to 8 million years ago.
The oldest Homo erectus fossils appear almost contemporaneously, shortly after two million years ago, both in Africa and in the Caucasus. The earliest well-dated Eurasian H. erectus site (if the fossils are indeed H. erectus — see Dmanisi hominins) is Dmanisi in Georgia, securely dated to 1.8 Ma.
This fossil was later dated at more than three million years old—much older than other hominin fossils known at the time. The site lay about 2.5 kilometres (1.6 mi) from the site where "Lucy" subsequently was found, in a rock stratum 60 metres (200 ft) deeper than that in which the Lucy fragments were found. [13] [14]
Lucy’s discovery transformed our understanding of human origins. Don Johanson, who unearthed the Australopithecus afarensis remains in 1974, recalls the moment he found the iconic fossil.
The fossils and stone tools recovered at Dmanisi range in age from 1.85 to 1.77 million years old, [6] [7] [8] making the Dmanisi hominins the earliest well-dated hominin fossils in Eurasia and the best preserved fossils of early Homo from a single site so early in time, though earlier fossils and artifacts have been found in Asia.
The first specimen, the Taung child, was described by anatomist Raymond Dart in 1924, and was the first early hominin found. However, its closer relations to humans than to other apes would not become widely accepted until the middle of the century because most had believed humans evolved outside of Africa.
Stone tools found at the Shangchen site in China and dated to 2.12 million years ago are considered the earliest known evidence of hominins outside Africa, surpassing Dmanisi hominins found in Georgia by 300,000 years, although whether these hominins were an early species in the genus Homo or another hominin species is unknown.
First found in 2021 alongside fossil bones, the prints were distinguished using a three-dimensional analysis, revealing different patterns of anatomy and movement. The footprint surface was ...