USA/ETHIOPIA: Fossil of 3.3 million-year-old fossil girl unveiled in Ethiopa

Ethiopian scientists unveiled on Wednesday (September 20) a 3.3 million-year-old fossil of a girl, which they believe is the most complete skeleton ever found. The fossil including an entire skull, torso, shoulder blade and various limbs was discovered at Dikaka, some 400 kilometers northeast of the capital Addis Ababa near the Awash river in the Rift Valley. The fossil has been named "Selam," which means peace in Ethiopia's official Amharic language. "Selam was older than the 3.2 million year old remains of "Lucy" discovered in 1974, and described by scientists as one of the world's greatest archaeological finds. "Selam" lived 3.3 million years ago, 150,000 years before Lucy. Zeresenay Alemseged of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany led the team that discovered the fossil. Zeresenay said the face's anatomy was key to identifying the fossil as afarensis. Chris Sloan, a senior editor at National Geographic who took part in the expedition told Reuters: "It's just so rare that you find a fossil that's so well preserved"...adding "Things like this are very very rare in the fossil record." This find offers new clues about how this early human ancestor merged the lines between apes and humans. For example, the shape of the baby's shoulder blades resembles a young gorilla's, suggesting she could climb trees. But the angle of the femur from knee to hip is close to that of a modern human, implying she walked efficiently on two legs. The cause of the child's death was not clear. It appeared that the ancient Awash River had rapidly buried the body in pebbles and sand during a flood. The remains were protected from the elements and gradually became fossilized. Carefully carving away sandstone with a dentist's drill, Zeresenay navigated between tiny vertebrae and ribs so that anatomical details could be seen. The task has taken five years so far. From the waist down, the Dikika baby looked like modern humans. One of her human-like knees was complete with a kneecap no bigger than a dried pea. But her upper body, like Lucy's, had many ape-like features. Her brain was small, her nose flat like a chimpanzee's, and her face long and projecting. Her finger bones were curved and almost as long as a chimp's. About 40 individuals, including seven researchers, have worked to uncover the remains of the baby and interpret the many aspects of the find, including geology and environment. Over the last 50 years, Ethiopia has been a hotbed for archaeological discoveries. On the shores of what was formerly a lake in 1967, two Homo sapiens skulls dating back 195,000 years were unearthed. The find pushed back the known date of mankind, suggesting that modern man and his older precursor existed side by side. The fossil was officially unveiled to journalists by anthropologist Zeresenay Alemsefed in the Ehiopian capital, Addis Ababa.

ITN Source | September 21, 2006

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