Dear friends of Geology, Science, Vedics and History,

Last and most recent past extinction of life was possibly only 4.32Mn years ago
Ethiopia's pride in 'Lucy' find http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/5364630.stm



Zeresenay Alemseged and the skull of "Lucy's baby"
A tropical storm beats against the national museum in Addis Ababa. The violent
thunder and lashing rain contrasts with the serene activity within. Inside a
solitary figure is cleaning up a 3.3-million-year-old skull.

Dr Zeresenay Alemseged has spent five years removing sandstone, grain by grain,
from his precious find. Illuminated by a single focussed beam of light, this is
intricate, delicate work: one mistake and crucial scientific detail could be
lost forever. Alemseged showed me that what has emerged are the delicate
features of a creature that was part ape and part human. "What you have here is
the backbone and the thoracic and all the ribs, the shoulder blades the collar
bones. But in addition, what you have here is a compete face and the sandstone
impression of the brain of a 3.3-million-year-old infant." Early sound Six years
ago Alemseged set off toward the north-eastern deserts of Ethiopia. Working in
the blistering heat, his team discovered what he thought was the skull of a
creature that was one of the first apes to have walked on two feet. Unable to
contain his excitement, the scientist called his friend Tefera Ghedamu.

HUMAN EVOLUTION

Different fossil in the 'human story' have been found
Not all will be a direct line to our Homo group
Scarce and fragmentary finds complicate the story
Scientists expect many more discoveries in Africa
"He said I think I got it! And he knew exactly what he'd got. He's a very
cautious person, a very shy person - but then he knew and told himself, 'this is
the bone'," Ghedamu recalls. Alemseged had found the most complete skeleton to
date of a species called Australopithecus afarensis, thought to be an important
pre-cursor to the first true humans. Not only was it in a fantastic state of
preservation but the specimen was that of an infant. This combination makes the
find a gold mine for those studying human evolution. It will now be available
for other specialists to study; but already Alemseged has made a number of
startling discoveries. Although the baby afarensis toddled on two feet like a
human child, it also had many important ape-like features. "The shoulder blades
are very gorilla-like and it may ignite old questions about whether afarensis
could climb trees or not. But what was really exciting was to find the tongue
bone. We will, based on this bone, be able to understand what the voice box was
like and about the kind of sound this creature made," he explains. Initial
thoughts suggest the bone is ape-like and that the creature probably sounded
like a chimp. 'On the cusp' What really excites Alemseged, however, is his study
of the ape-girl's brain. He believes it is still developing. Slow and gradual
development in an extended childhood is a uniquely human feature - probably to
enable our higher functions to fully develop. So, according to Alemseged, this
infant and her like may have been the first to show real human-like
characteristics

"It's the earliest girl ever found with a mix of features that are ape-like and
human-like at the same time, and this puts her in a special position to play a
pivotal role. She is on the cusp of humanity," he says. The creature is the
latest of many recent fossil finds important to the understanding of human
evolution - the most famous of which was the first Australopithecus afarensis
specimen - and adult nicknamed "Lucy" - in 1974. It has prompted the Ethiopia's
culture minister, Mahmud Dirr Gade, to invite more scientists to come to the
African nation to help unearth humankind's origins. "We welcome researchers to
delve into the secrets and mystery of the creation of man in Ethiopia; the 'home
of humanity'," he tells me. Home grown Zeresenay Alemseged is the first
Ethiopian to lead a research team that has made such an important discovery. He
is a bright young scientist who has studied in the US and Europe and is
currently attached to the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in
Leipzig, Germany.


Alemseged is the first Ethiopian team leader to make such a find

Human anthropology is a cut-throat field, even for those who have established
themselves and have the backing of big funding bodies. So, according to Tefera
Ghedamu, it is especially remarkable that an outsider like Alemseged has worked
his way up and to win the respect of the scientific community - and the pride of
his nation. "From my angle, from an ordinary Ethiopian's point of view, they
think it is quite a heritage. They are proud that the discovery has been made in
Ethiopia and they are proud that it's been made by one of their own," he says.


Ethiopia is critical to the understanding of human evolution


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