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This story was updated at 3:14 p.m. ET .
A mysterious ancient relative of humanity known as Little Foot apparently roll the Earth at about the same time as the celebrated Lucy , paint a picture the ancestors of humans may have be with significant variety across a good part of Africa , researchers say .
The skull ofAustralopithecus prometheus(Little Foot), a human relative that lived about 3.7 million years ago.
This determination come from evidence suggest the mysterious human congeneric was entomb some 3.7 million years ago , more lately than sentiment . This fresh date may one day help shed light on which region and which specie gave rise to humanity , scientists added .
Among the earliest known relatives of the human lineage unquestionably known to take the air upright wasAustralopithecus afarensis , the species that admit the famed 3.2 - million - year - oldLucy . australopithecine are the leading candidate for lineal root of man , living about 2.9 million to 4.1 million years ago . ( The human origin , Homo , is cerebrate to have originated about 2 million years ago . )
WhileAustralopithecus afarensisdwelled in easterly Africa , another australopithecine nicknamed Little Foot , due to the lilliputian nature of the osseous tissue , lived in southern Africa . discover about 20 years ago by paleoanthropologist Ronald Clarke from the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa , Little Foot apparently precipitate down a narrow shaft in the Sterkfontein Caves . This leave behind a nearly arrant skeleton that could give key insight on human evolution . [ See Images of Little Foot and Other Australopithecines ]
Lucy ’s admirer
It remains fence what kind of australopithecine Little Foot was . Many scientist think Little Foot was a member ofAustralopithecus africanus , which had a rounder skull house a big brain and pocket-sized tooth than did Lucy and the rest ofAustralopithecus afarensis . However , Clarke and others suggest Little Foot belong to another australopithecine eff asAustralopithecus prometheus , which had a longer , unconditional face and larger cheek teeth thanAustralopithecus africanus .
It was inconceivable to equip Little Foot intothe human kinsperson treewith any certainty because " ever since its breakthrough , the age of Little Foot has been debated , " said lead study writer Darryl Granger , a geochronologist at Purdue University in West Lafayette , Indiana . If investigator can calculate out when Little Foot arose , they might be capable to better pinpoint whichAustralopithecusspecies and which part of Africa at last gave lift toHomo .
Now , Granger and his colleagues have found evidence that Little Foot dwell at about the same time as Lucy . Even so , the fossil does n’t give a definitive answer on Little Foot ’s mintage .
" The most important entailment from see Little Foot is that we now know that australopithecines were in South Africa early in their development , " Granger tell Live Science . " This mean an evolutionary connexion between South Africa and East Africa prior to the age of Little Foot , and with enough time for the australopithecine species to diverge . "
This in turn suggests that other australopithecine — and , subsequently , homo — " did not all have to have derived fromAustralopithecus afarensis , " Clarke state Live Science . " There could well have been many species ofAustralopithecusextending over a much wider area of Africa . "
go out Little Foot
The research worker first tried dating the age of footling Foot more than a decade ago " and got an age of around 4 million eld , which would place Little Foot among the old of the australopithecine , " Granger said .
However , date the historic period of fossils in caves is extraordinarily complicated because cloth can wash off into a cave from the outside and easily confound analysis . When others dated the long time of minerals know as flowstones near Little Foot , they observe those cave formations originated about 2.2 million years ago . " I was disappointed , but I could see nothing wrong with their historic period , " Granger said .
But a late cogitation found these nearby flowstones did not muse Little Foot ’s long time because they were not part of the same layer of rock that hold the fossils and therefore did not take shape at the same time . In the young depth psychology , Granger and his colleagues pinpointed the fossil ’s age by measuring level of atomic number 13 and beryllium isotopes in quartz glass in the same rock bed as the skeleton .
The researchers also found that the earliest stone tools in the same cave date back to about 2.2 million years ago . This is a similar years to former stone cock found elsewhere in eastern and southern Africa . " This involve a connectedness between South African and East African hominids that occurred soon after the show of Edward Durell Stone putz , " Granger say .
The researchers said they go for that other land site around the earthly concern will now be dated using their method acting . " There should be a thoroughgoing study to explore the strength and weakness of the method , " Granger said .
Granger , Clarke and their colleagues detailed their finding in the April 2 issue ofthe journal Nature .
