Discover new species of hominid that lived in the same … – LaTercera (Record)

It was a neighbor of Lucy , researchers say about the new hominin species found in the Afar region of Ethiopia, only 35 kilometers from where 40 years ago the remains of the rescued copy best known hominid ( Australopithecus afarensis ).

The new species, dubbed Australopithecus deyiremeda ( Deyi: near / Remeda. relative in the local language) is a close relative of all later hominids lived between 3.3 and 3.5 million years ago The teeth and jaws are found different from Lucy and add evidence to the hypothesis that multiple species of hominids coexisted during the Middle Pliocene

” The new species and species as Lucy are definitely close relatives . Their differences could be due to the habitat in which they lived and their strategies to find food, such as the food they ate, among other possibilities, “he told La Tercera, Yohannes Haile-Selassie, an anthropologist and chief curator of the Museum of Natural History Cleveland, author of the discovery.

Luis Gibert, a researcher at the University of Barcelona, ​​also author of the paper published in Nature-has the discovery occurred in March 2011 and its importance is that it is the first time there is evidence that two species of Australopithecus lived at the same time and space , the Middle Pliocene 3.5 million years ago.

“So far only existed a distinct species at that time, called Australopithecus afarensis (Lucy) and, therefore, all subsequent species evolved hominids supposed that species, “explains the researcher.

Other proposals of contemporary hominid Lucy , found in Kenya ( Kenyantropus platyops ) and Chad ( Australopithecus bahrelghazali ) were received with skepticism by the community of paleoanthropologists said, “perhaps because there was no evidence on the ground of coexistence of these species Australopithecus afarensis “. In Ethiopia itself there is evidence of this cohabitation, “therefore is now important to review with an open mind the number of species of hominids in Africa during the Middle Pliocene , think a number could range from two four “ said.

With the new data on those who lived in the average African Pliocene, the following is which species evolved to yield the genus Homo . “We have to recover more fossils and more complete. It is also important to understand why speciation of hominids occurs during that period of time,” explains Gibert.

The research indicates that it is known that to the 2.8 to 1,700,000 years periods of aridity that led to the expansion of the savannah in East Africa occurred, coinciding with episodes of speciation of hominids (new species appear). “ The question is whether the presence of several species of hominids in the Middle Pliocene is also due to a change in the weather during that time (3.5 to 3,600,000 years) favored changes in the environment and formation of new species adapted to new environmental conditions . The sedimentary record can help us answer that question and are working on it, “he emphasizes.