Scientists say a jawbone fossil discovered by a graduate student in Ethiopia... could belong to an early species that led to modern humans in the evolutionary process. <br />Kim Hyun-bin has the details. <br />A 2-point-8 million year old jawbone fossil with five teeth intact has been unearthed in an Ethiopian desert.<br />The discovery is evidence that early humans roamed the earth half-a-million years before what was previously thought.<br />Scientists say the fossil represents the oldest known specimen of the human genus homo and appears to be in the earliest stages of the human lineage.<br /><br />"It's important because it is transitional between Australopithecus species, it has some of those characteristics and of later homo species and so we can follow evolution more closely because of it."<br /><br />The jawbone was found near the location of where the remains of one of the most famous human ancestor fossils -- Lucy -- was found.<br /><br />""We can see how evolution works by having some of the older characteristics of Lucy's species plus the new characteristics of the homo species in this mandible."<br /><br />The anatomy of this discovery is seen to have a close relationship with later homo species as it encompasses the left side of the jaw.<br />It has features including tooth shape and jaw proportions that separates the homo lineage species from the more ape like Australopithecus.<br />Kim Hyun-bin, Arirang News.
