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POPSClues to our shared humanity An unexpected delight from this summer’s TEDGlobal was a remarkable tale of discovery from paleoanthropologist Zeresenay Alemseged, who made headlines worldwide when he unearthed "Selam," a 3-year-old girl who died 3.3 million years ago. Technically a member of the hominid species, Australopithecus afarensis, Selam was still chimp-like in some respects. But Alemseged shows how she represents the beginnings of humanity: She could walk, her brain was growing, and she had the tools -- if not yet the ability -- to talk. As the bones of her relative, "Lucy," begin their controversial US tour
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POPSArchaeologists Find Footprints in Egypt --The The Laetoli footprints are dated to be @ least 3.6 Million yrs old. They were discovered in Tanzania, 45 km south of Olduvai gorge --Lucy is not referred to as an "ape man"! She is a hominid and her genus and species is Australopithecus afarensis.
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POPSIsraeli researchers: 'Lucy' is not direct ancestor of humans The specific structure found in Lucy also appears in a species called Australopithecus robustus. Prof. Yoel Rak and colleagues at the Sackler School of Medicine's department of anatomy and anthropology wrote, "The presence of the morphology in both the latter and Australopithecus afarensis and its absence in modern humans cast doubt on the role of as a common ancestor."
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POPSMeet the Dikika Baby "... the same species as the superstar fossil called Lucy, a 3.2-million-year-old adult female found in 1974. Unlike Lucy, the baby has fingers, a foot, and a complete torso. "But the most impressive difference between them," says Zeresenay (Ethiopians' first names are their formal ones), "is that this baby has a face.""
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