Incredible facts
The remains are 2.8 million years old, which is 400,000 years more than the original version of human origin thought. The discovery in Ethiopia suggests that climate change has stimulated the transition from primate status to real man.
The head of the research team told BBC News that the find provides the first insight into “the most important transition in human evolution.”
First people
Professor Brian Villmoare of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, said that this discovery establishes a clear link with the iconic hominin (a person who looks like a primate) age 3.2 million years old, discovered in the same area in 1974 and named “Lucy”.
Maybe the Lucy family belonged to the Australopithecus Afar species, the very first primitive person? “This is what scientists are arguing about right now,” says Professor Wilmoar.
The fossil found dates back to a period when the species “Lucy” still existed. Analysis of the found fossil led to the conclusion that these are the remains of an upright person with a relatively large brain and humanoid body proportions.
The very first people
The oldest man's jaw was found at the research site of Ledi-Geraru, the Afar regional state, by an Ethiopian student (Chalachew Seyoum). This student said in an interview with BBC News that he was stunned when he saw the fossil.
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The fossil is the left side of the lower jaw with five teeth.
The back molars are smaller than other hominids who lived in the area. Small molars are one of the features that distinguish modern people from more primitive ancestors, according to Professor William Kimbel, Director of the Institute of a person's origin in Arizona.
Research like this makes us consider the very definition of what it means to be human. Note that earlier the oldest find belonging to the Homo genus was the upper jaw found in the village of Hadar, Ethiopia. The age of this find was 2.35 million years.
The first people on earth
Therefore, the latest discovery suggests that humans appeared 400,000 years earlier than scientists thought. The combination of primitive and advanced features of the found find suggests that this is a transitional form between Lucy and modern people.
This is also proved by a computer reconstruction of the skull belonging to the Homo species. A virtual model of the skull was published in the journal Nature.
Professor Fred Spoor from University College London, who participated in the study, told BBC News that the new discovery has lifted the veil on a key period in the development of our genus.
“By finding new remains and analyzing old ones, we have really deepened our knowledge of our own evolution over a million years. Our evolution was shrouded in mystery until recently,” Spur said.
The first ancient people
An introduction to the latest find in the form of the jawbone can help answer one of the key questions in human evolution: what prompted some primitive ancestors to descend from trees and settle down on the ground?
Some research in science suggests that climate change may have been this trigger. After all, an analysis of fossilized plants and animals in the same area suggests that what was once lush forests has now become dry herbaceous cover.
Just as trees once “left” these vast plains, ancient human primates have found a way to exploit new ecological niches, develop their thinking and become less dependent on large ones jaws and teeth that were used as tools.
Professor Chris Stringer from the Natural History Museum in London described this discovery as a “big story.” He says that the new finding clearly shows the earliest step towards modern human characteristics.
The first people in the world
But at the same time, the professor suggests that this finding is not sufficient evidence that this is the species from which we descended.
Stringer notes that the appearance of a person with these characteristics is not unique to Ethiopia.
“Human characteristics, using the example of Australopithecine sedib, found in South Africa aged 1.95 million years, most likely developed regardless of the processes that ancient people had in Eastern Africa Africa. It may well be that this was another parallel human development”, explained the professor.
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This suggests that several different human species coexisted in Africa about two million years ago, and only one of them survived, eventually becoming our homosapiens species.
It's as if nature was experimenting with different versions of the same evolutionary configuration until only one came up.