Above: The fossils of LUCY from Ethiopia on display at the
Discovery Times Square exhibition in New York on June 23,
2009. New fossil predates Lucy. (Photo – Chester Higgins)

Tadias Magazine
By Tadias Staff

Published: Tuesday, June 22, 2010

New York (Tadias) – Here comes another anthropological discovery from Ethiopia: the oldest known fossil of human ancestor (3.6 million years old) has been found in the Afar region of Ethiopia – unseating the famous 3.2 million years old Lucy (Dinqnesh) — whose skeletal remains are currently touring the United States.

The new bones, which are much bigger than Lucy, have been named “Kadanuumuu,” (kah-dah-nuu-muu) which means “big man” in the Afar language.

The news comes on the heels of recent questions raised by other scientists regrading Ardi – another recent discovery – and its classification as a member of the human lineage. According to The New York Times, “Its primitive anatomy,” scientists contend, “suggests a species predating the common ancestor of the human and chimpanzee family trees.”

Regrading the newly discovered fossil: “This individual was fully bipedal and had the ability to walk almost like modern humans,” author Yohannes Haile-Selassie of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History said in a statement. “As a result of this discovery, we can now confidently say that Lucy and her relatives were almost as proficient as we are walking on two legs, and that the elongation of our legs came earlier in our evolution than previously thought.”

Watch: Museum Curator Introduces Hominid Fossil

Related:
Ardi: Oldest Fossil of Human Ancestor?