Bones of the first people on Earth discovered in Kenya
The remains of the earliest known representatives of the genus Homo were found on the shores of Lake Turkana in Kenya. Their age is at least 1.86 million years, according to Nature Communications.
Homo erectus is the first hominid to resemble modern humans in body structure. Many researchers believe that he was the direct ancestor of Homo sapiens. This species appeared about two million years ago, but scientists have very little reliable data on its origin and evolution.
In 1974, excavations in Eastern Turkana unearthed one of the oldest pieces of evidence for H. erectus: a small fragment of a skull. Its age was estimated at 1.9 million years. But some experts have questioned this dating, suggesting that the skull may have been brought by water or wind from a later fossil deposit.
The authors of the modern study were able to establish the truth. They tracked down the specific location where the skull was found, analyzed the soil layers and stated that there were no traces of younger rocks.
“This confirms the original age given to the fossil,” reads the text of the scientific work.
Scientists also carried out additional excavations and discovered other remains of an ancient hominid: part of the pelvis and knuckles. According to them, these are possibly the earliest examples of postcranial (ie, “below the skull”) skeleton of Homo erectus in the world.
Earlier it was reported that experts have recreated the oldest European genome. The genetic material was taken from a 45,000-year-old skull found in the Czech Republic.
