Fossilized bones found in northern Ethiopia belong to a human ancestor who lived 4.3 million to 4.5 million years ago, researchers said Wednesday.
The jaw, finger and toe bones are just the second set of fossilized remains to be found from Ardipithecus ramidus, which looked like a chimpanzee and walked on two feet. The remains found in Gona add to those found earlier in Ethiopia in Middle Awash, researchers from Indiana University and seven other institutions said in a letter to the journal Nature.
"A few windows are now opening in Africa to glance into the fossil evidence on the earliest hominids," said lead researcher Sileshi Semaw.
Semaw and colleagues said the find suggests the human ancestors lived in close quarters with a menagerie of animals in a northern Ethiopia that was far wetter than it is today.
Anthropologists worked under the belief that Ardipithecus is the first human ancestor who lived just after a split that produced modern chimpanzees.
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