Paleontologists working in Ethiopia are analyzing a recent discovery that could indicate yet another revision of what is known about our ancestry. A prehistoric peccary about 2.8 million years old may represent the identification of another species, perhaps the oldest of the genus Homo.
The mandible found by researchers at the University of Arizona, USA, is in good condition – which is unusual in findings of this type – and bears characteristics of evolutionary transition between the genera
em>australopithecu s and the homo .
“It's the oldest fossil that can be assigned to our genus,” says paleontologist Brian A. Villmoare, from the University of Nevada, USA. Analyzes indicate that the find does not bring remains that belonged to an individual of the species Homo habilis and other research points to the possibility, as research from the respected Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany has concluded that the origins of habilis can even be traced back to a period earlier than what has been conventionalized so far.
