Ancient Human-Like Fossils in South Africa may Rewrite the History of Human Civilization

A latest analysis indicates that early human-like remains in South Africa might well be thousands of years old aged beyond initially assumed, raising the possibility that the creature's origin led up to humanity.

History of Human Civilization

The revised chronology has the potential to alter a couple major chapters in the period of mankind development. This is since the discovery implies that the remains correspond to a primate that predates the renowned 3.2-million-year-old "Lucy" relic. Lucy's life forms were widely considered to be the leading candidate for the forefather of sentient beings.

The classification Homo sapiens is the sole existing representative of the humankind ancestry. Earlier studies revealed that the Australopithecus species, which flourished between 4.1 million and 2.9 million years ago, was the most likely option for Homo's ancestors.

Assessing the muscle tissue of those certain wildlife, like horses dug up all around early human relics, or the flowstone related with the hominid layers - thin sheets of sandstone accumulated from stream discovered along the whole interior walls of tunnels - are numerous different methods for dating the Australopithecus samples in Sterkfontein, Live Science reported.

This recent research, which demonstrate A. africanus is as old as, if not ancient than, A. afarensis, could eliminate the possibility that A. africanus is a descendant of A. afarensis.

Rather, he proposed A. africanus, as well as A. afarensis might be a sister genus developed from a more distant related genus, such as the 3.8-million-year-old A. anamensis, which Haile-Selassie assisted in discovering in Ethiopia in 2016.

As per Nature, when Lucy's remains were discovered in Ethiopia in 1974, they were the globe's earliest and largest comprehensive remains of an early hominin, the category that comprises mankind and ancient creatures which are quite highly tied to humans than every single creature.

The novel cosmogenic approach, according to John Hawks, a paleoanthropologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, will most probably neither resolve the debate about the antiquity of the Sterkfontein remains. Prior literature, nevertheless, revealed that the Sterkfontein remains were just 2.1 million to 2.6 million years old.

Conversely, experts have frequently claimed that Australopithecus species in East Africa, like Lucy's, were the progenitors of the common ancestor. afarensis, as well as A. afarensis from South Africa. africanus is derived from A. africanus of East Africa. afarensis.

Also read: New Evidence Shows an Apparent Key to Dinosaurs' Later Dominance on the Ancient Mass Extinction

Human-Like Fossils in South Africa

As posted under the Journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, experts interested in determining the origins of these fossils, in instance, may participate in double-blind tests comprising various teams of scholars investigating the comparable specimens, despite understanding wherever they are originated till they submit their conclusions.

Furthermore, experts developed innovative estimations of the antiquity of the other hominid specimens from Sterkfontein in the latest research.

According to studies from Darryl Granger, a geochronologist at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, and his associates, the almost intact carcass identified as Little Foot discovered there is believed to be 3.67 million years old. They discovered that the remains might be 3.4 million to 3.7 million years old.

Initially, it surprised experts that the newfound estimates of 3.4 to 3.6 million years were so comparable to the earlier strata.

Archaeologists have discovered numerous of hominid remains at Sterkfontein throughout the years, most of which are classed as Australopithecus africanus.

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