‘Missing link’ unearthed in Africa

REMAINS of at least nine ape-like creatures, which some experts believe to be the closest thing known to the “missing link”, have been unearthed in Africa.

Ardipithecus ramidus was identified just 11 years ago. Before the most recent find, scientists had discovered only a handful of fossils of the species.

Anthropologists believe the creature, which lived about 4.5 million years ago, was the first member of the hominid family which includes modern humans.

Yet in life, it would have appeared a lot more like a chimpanzee than a human.

What marked Ardipithecus out from apes was that it walked on two feet. It also had diamond-shaped upper canine teeth which were more human-like than the “V” shaped chompers of chimps.

The new fossils, mostly teeth and jaw fragments and parts of hands and feet, were discovered at the Gona study area in the Afar region of northern Ethiopia.

Other finds at the site show that Ardipithecus lived alongside a menagerie of animals, including antelope, rhinos, monkeys, giraffes and hippos.

At the time, Ethiopia was much wetter than today. Ardipithecus would have lived in a mixed habitat of forest and grasslands.

A team led by Dr Sileshi Semaw, from the Stone Age Institute at Indiana University in Gosport, US, described the fossils in the journal Nature.

Dr Semaw said: “A few windows are now opening in Africa to glance into the fossil evidence on the earliest hominids.

“We now have more than 30 fossils from at least nine individuals dated between 4.3 and 4.5 million years old.”

The age of the remains was estimated by dating volcanic material found in their vicinity.

Humans split from chimpanzees on the evolutionary tree just over four million years ago.

Ardipithecus lived just after that time and may represent the first step on the path which led to modern humans, as well as a number of other extinct hominid species.