The Leatoli Footprints and Early Human AncestorsIn 1978 a team led by British paleoanthropologist Ma
The Leatoli Footprints and Early Human AncestorsIn 1978 a team led by British paleoanthropologist Mary Leakey found trace fossils of animal footprints left in ash several million years old. Searching further, Leakey’s team found the oldest trace fossils of early hominids in Leatoli, about 30 miles south of the famed Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania. The footprints are though to come from three individuals from the australopithecus afarensis family. Like the pithecanthropus (see recent post here), the australopithecus was named under the assumption that it represented a missing link between humans and primates. The name australopithecus comes from the Latin word australis meaning south and the Ancient Greek word pithekos meaning ape. The name was given that same year by Donald Wilson and Tim White, who found fragments two thousand miles north of the Leatoli site in the Afar region of Ethiopia, hence afarensis. Happy Birthday, Mary Leakey, born on this day, February 6, 1913.Shout out to my little man, Rowan, another Ethiopian treasure! Photo via J. Paul Getty Trust, copyright 1995. -- source link
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