Africa is famous as the cradle of humanity, with the focus of palaeoanthropological research relating to Australopithecus, Paranthropus or early Homo
firmly centred on the rich record of the East African Rift Valley as
well as South Africa. Much of the research within the Rift Valley has
concentrated so far on the large exposures to the east, with little
research or fossil finds west of this geological feature. New research
published in PLOSOne has, however, begun to shift this focus and reports on a first hominin find from Central Africa.
The authors describe and discuss a single molar from the site of Ishango
in the Western Rift Valley, which today lays on the boundary between
the tropical rainforest of Congo and the savannah woodlands of East
Africa. This site, known for its Late Stone Age artefacts, was initially
discovered and excavated during the 1950s. Numerous LSA hominin fossils
were recovered, and this paper was able to establish that a more
primitive hominin has been mixed in with this fossil assemblage. [...] globalpalaeonews
Reference: Crevecoeur I, Skinner MM, Bailey SE, Gunz P,
Bortoluzzi S, et al. (2014) First Early Hominin from Central Africa
(Ishango, Democratic Republic of Congo). PLoS ONE 9(1): e84652.
doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0084652
Link 3: Une dent d’hominidé de - 2,5 millions d’années en Afrique centrale
sábado, 18 de enero de 2014
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