Ethiopian Jawbone Fossil Pushes Back Human Origins

A 2.8-million-year-old jawbone fossil with five intact teeth unearthed in an Ethiopian desert is pushing back the dawn of humankind by about half a million years. Scientists said on Wednesday the fossil represents the oldest known representative of the human genus Homo and appears to be a previously unknown species from the human lineage's earliest phases. Our species, Homo sapiens, appeared only 200,000 years ago, following a procession of others in the same genus. Until now, the...

© La Voix de l'Amérique - mercredi 4 mars 2015