Tuesday, June 22, 2010

"Great Grandfather" of Lucy Found in East Africa

A 3.6 million year old partial skeleton from the same species as "Lucy" was recently discovered .  The skeleton, Kadanuumuu, meaning "big man", was found in Ethiopia's Afar region, the same place Lucy was found in 1974.  Both skeletons share the species name Australopithecus afarensis.  Australopiths share traits with chimpanzees and humans.  They share protruding faces and small brains with chimpanzees and skeletons built for upright walking with humans.

There isn't much information on Kadanuumu at this point.  I'm sure there will be more released as further research is conducted.

The complete press release from the Cleveland Museum of Natural History regarding Kadanummu can be found here.

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