In this research paper we will be discussing the Omo site in Ethiopia, Africa. Some key points that will be discussed will be its original discovery in 1967, it’s addition research that was completed in 2005, Omo I and II’s updated age (McDougall et al., 2005), and the scientific importance of the discoveries from this site and what it means for idea of the first appearance of the modern human (Fleagle et al., 2008).
In 1967 in the Lower Omo Valley near Kibish, Ethiopia along the Omo river, a team from the Kenya National Museums, led by Richard Leakey an anthropologist and conservationist, did an initial exploration which led to the discovery of several stone tools, hominin fossils, and various other skull fossils of mammals. In this expedition the team found parts of what would be known as Omo I and Omo II. The finds for Omo I comprised of the mandible, dentition, several parts of the cranium, and a considerable portion of the post cranial skeleton. Omo I’s finds has been described as being a modern skeleton of Homo sapiens. Omo II comprised of an almost intact neurocranium, which has been described as primitive remains most closely resembling Homo erectus (Fleagle et al. 2008). At that time in 1967, researches faced a difficult time establishing an accurate age of these remains due in part to the confines of technology. The team at this time decided to use a rather controversial method that looked at “radiometric dates on shells from a Nile oyster (Etheria elliptica) bank
Discoveries relating to the human lineage are extremely exciting and often baffling. This is the case with the recent discovery of what seems to be the oldest member of the human family. A skull found in northern Chad in 2001, has been deemed the earliest relative to the human ever found. Nicknamed Toumai, and discovered by Michel Brunet and his paleontology team, this new category of human has been given the scientific name, Sahelanthropus tchaensis. What makes this skull so definitive is the fact that it dates back approximately 6-7 million years in the earth’s history (Whitfield 2002). Since the discovery there have been anthropologists and paleontologists that have
This article shows how Paleoanthropologist David Lordkipanidze and his group of archeologist discovered a 1.8 million-year-old skull fossil that could lead to knowing more about the earliest known ancestors of humans that ventured outside of Africa. Lordkipanidze’s excavation in the Georgia site known as Dmanisi. With this archeology find, it has been concluded that all early fossil humans belong to the same species known as Homo erectus. The article explains that the Dmanisi hominins had brains less than half the size of a modern human’s, and are key to understand the evolution and expansion these ancestors experienced from Africa to Eurasia. Genetic studies indicate that their expansion began from Africa about 1.9 million years ago. The article also mentions that with these new findings there can be a better ground from where to start to understand these ancestors as how they lived and socialized. Lordkipanidze does mention that the Dmanisi “were very primitive, we think there were social groups that connected with each other and learned from each other”.
In the continent of Africa, there were numerous city states that were quite successful and powerful, particularly during the early centuries of the Common Era. Many African city-states increased the overall wealth, trade, and even territorial control in numerous regions, and as a result, different African societies experienced significant changes. One African city-state that was very powerful during the period from around 300 BCE to 700 CE, was Aksum, located in Northern Ethiopia. During the rise of Aksum, there was significant change in the horn of Ethiopia, as trade, agricultural production and military control increased. Through this, Aksum’s success increased, and as a result, Ethiopia and other nearby regions experienced significant change.
A longstanding view of human evolution holds that the first hominids to leave Africa did so with the help of bigger brains, longer legs and fancier tools than those of their predecessors. That scenario suffered a major blow a couple of years ago, however, when paleontologists working in Dmanisi, Georgia unearthed the oldest human remains yet found outside of Africa---two 1.7-million-year-old skulls belonging to early members of our genus, Homo--and discovered primitive tools alongside them. Now a new finding may topple another pillar of the theory. According to a report in the current issue of the journal Science,researchers working at the same site have recovered a third skull--one that housed a surprisingly small brain.
A group of these challengers, led by Jack Harris of Rutgers University, have found evidence of tools and skeletons of Homo erectus consistently located in the same campsites as burned patches in Koobi Fora, Kenya, all dated back approximately 1.6 million years ago, (McCrone, 30). Harris insists that, "even discounting
Crossing over the distance of two continents, the next fossil was recovered from a gravel pit in Swanscombe, England, and is believed to date from 250,000 years ago. The Swanscombe skull consists of an occipital bone and left and right parietals, all well-preserved (1987: 223-224). The cranial volume has been estimated at 1,275 to 1,325 cc., putting it well within the range of modern populations. There are some archaic features, however, as well. There is some indication of a heavy brow ridge, and the cranial walls are relatively thick (1987: 224). Also, the vault of the skull is low, further suggesting some sort of transitional between Homo erectus and Homo sapiens (1987: 224-225). Again, this mixture of modern and archaic features is very conveniently explained by the multi-regional continuity theory of human evolution.
This mysterious hominin, Australopithecus Sediba, is one of the newer discoveries in the world of anthropology. According to John Raffertys’ 2014 publication in the Britannica Encyclopedia, it was not until 2008 that paleoanthropologists’ son, Matthew Berge, the nine-year-old son of the famous Lee Berger happened to stumble across this incredible discovery while on a dig in South Africa. The remains of the Australopithecus Sediba were found dispersed throughout the Cradle of Human Kind World Heritage Site which is located in the Malapa Cave in Southern Africa. The very first part of the discovery was made out side of the cave which consisted of a
Australopithecus afarensis is one of the best known of the of the australopithecine species with Laetoli footprints found in Tanzania and many bones and bone fragments found in Ethiopia and Kenya. Because of certain very well preserved remains, we can tell a lot about this species. The most famous of these remains is “Lucy”, a skeleton with remains from almost every bone dating 3.2 million years old. This is a sexually dimorphic bipedal species, meaning the males and females have different characteristics and they walk on two legs. Males tend to be about 1 and 1/2 times the size of females and have larger canine teeth, but these teeth are still smaller than those of the Chimpanzee. Body size ranges between 1.1 and 1.6 meters and weight can be anywhere between 29 and 45 kilograms. This species has a jutting lower face (prognathic) and closely resemble an ape from the waist up and a human from the waist down. The curvature that the fingers and toes and elevated position of the shoulder joint show that this species is more adapted to tree climbing than more recent human ancestors.
Australopithecus boisei was dated through this method in 1959 by M. Leakey and her husband from Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania. In this area, the deposits are mainly formed by volcanic materials, which made the method available for archaeologists. They found an unknown fossil of hominid skull covered by volcanic products, which were collected twice for the examination of the ratio between potassium and argon (Clark 1962). Calculating the potassium-argon ratio each from Bed II (the level below fossil) and Bed I (the level above fossil), they proposed that the fossil could date back to from 2 mya to 1
This is because the cranial capacity is fairly easy to measure with an absolute brain size of 600cc being used as a defining feature of the genus Homo. However, some early Homo species had smaller brains than Australopiths (Morton, 2016), suggesting it may not be appropriate to consider cranial capacity alone, particularly as cranial fossil remains can be problematic when often found damaged. Endocranial casts can also be used to infer whether a species had developed spoken language, a feature used to distinguish Homo species. However, definitive evidence for the development of spoken language is poor and can’t be reliably interpreted from the appearance of endocranial casts (Wood & Collard, 1999). Tool use may also be connected with an increased cognitive ability and can be used to determine species within the genus Homo. However, stone tool deposits dating 2.6-2.3 million years old have been found in East Africa (Wood & Collard, 1999), linking them to later species of Australopiths, suggesting this may be an unreliable characteristic to use.
Both Leakey’s were anthropologist who were motivated to live through harsh climate of Tanzania, paid very little, and lost a lot of respect from the anthropology community to explore Africa to find the earliest known human. At the time no one would've expected the earliest known human to be there as most anthropologists believed human were not from Africa. The team arrived in the early 1930’s at Olduvai Gorge trying to find at least one fossil to prove their theory. For decades they found many ancient of mammal fossils, stone tools, and evidence that intelligent life once lived in the surrounding area but, not one hominid fossil. The search was starting to become very hopeless and tiresome but, on July 17th, 1959 Mary Leakey saw a bone sticking out of the ground and with a little bit of investigation she realized it looked very similar to hominid teeth. She called he husband to gather the excavation team to the site to start digging to see what else they could uncover. They found hundreds of skull fragments which when they reconstructed it proved the existence of early hominids in East Africa. This discovery would rock the anthropology community as hard evidence proved Mary and Louis Leakey right about their theory. The skull was classified as Australopithecus Boisei and held a nickname with the Leakey’s as “Dear Boy.” After this groundbreaking discovery nearly two years later Louis’s son Jonathan found a second type of hominid known as Homo Habilis in the same dig site. Both of these fossils would not be the last major discoveries as their finds brought paleoanthropological and anthropologist from all over the world to East Africa where tons of more skeletal bones were found. The Leake’s stayed in Africa for another six decades searching for more answer about our
The remains, which were found in Tanzania's Olduvai Gorge, are a phalanx in the left hand pinky finger of a human's evolutionary ancestor. The ancestor was probably about six feet tall, according to researchers, who have named it “OH 86.”
There's a region in East Africa that’s in Dallol, Ethiopia called the Danakil Depression. Scientists believe that life could be found in this place. The Danakil depression lies on an area where a tectonic plate is being pulled apart. This allows rocks and gases rise to the surface from under the ground. When water and volcanic gases meet it makes the water acidic. The place has emerald green ponds, and these ponds are acidic.
In a 2010 article in “Science”, Dr. Berger and a team of experts described the fossils of a boy and a woman, who were discovered near Johannesburg. The bones were a surprise because they displayed a mixture of primitive and modern human attributes, therefore qualifying as a distinct species. They have been named Australopithecus sediba, and lived about 2 million years ago.
The National Museum of Kenya seeks to preserve and share the heritage of past and present Kenya (museum cite). Kenya is located on east Africa, where numerous of different hominin fossils have been found (O’Neil). The Australopithecus afarensis is the intermediate ancestor between human and apes (O’Neil). Moreover, the term Australopithecus means “southern ape” and the term afarensis is based on the location where the first of its kind were found, in Ethiopia, Africa (Australian Museum). Over 300 of the Australopithecus afarensis fossilized remains have been found in Kenya, Ethiopia, and Tanzania (Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History). The new exhibit at the National Museum of Kenya, seeks to showcase and share information on the remains of an Australopithecus afarensis found in Olduvai George, Tanzania. The remains consist of three teeth and one leg bone. The exhibit explains how the three teeth and leg bone became fossils, how they were found and dated using different dating techniques, and how they are being preserved and conserved in the museum.