A TEAM of scientists has announced the discovery of a 3.4 million-year-old partial foot from the Woranso-Mille area of the Afar region of Ethiopia. The fossil foot did not belong to a member of 'Lucy's' species, Australopithecus afarensis, the famous early human ancestor.The find may be the first glimpse of a separate, extinct, branch of the human family, collectively called hominins. It also hints that there may have been several evolutionary paths leading to feet adapted for walking upright.Research on this new specimen indicates that more than one species of early human ancestor existed between 3 and 4 million years ago with different methods of locomotion. The analysis was published in the March 29, 2012 issue of the journal Nature.The partial foot was found in February 2009 in an area locally known as Burtele.But unlike Au. afarensis, the latest find has an opposable big toe ' rather like a thumb on the foot ' that would have allowed the species to grasp branches while climbing. Modern apes have similar toes, but the youngest hominin previously known to have them is Ardipithecus ramidus, which lived about 4.4 million years ago.Au. afarensis has a big toe that is more closely aligned with the other digits on the foot, an adaptation that provides support during upright walking. Au. afarensis was fully bipedal and had already abandoned life in the trees. Other features of the fossil foot show that it did not belong to an ape, but that it is truly a member of the hominins.Also, another new research suggests European Neandertals were almost extinct long before humans showed up.Western Europe has long been held to be the 'cradle' of Neandertal evolution since many of the earliest discoveries were from sites in this region. But when Neandertals started disappearing around 30,000 years ago, anthropologists figured that climactic factors or competition from modern humans were the likely causes.Intriguingly, new research suggests that Western European Neandertals were on the verge of extinction long before modern humans showed up. This new perspective comes from a study of ancient DNA carried out by an international research team. Rolf Quam, a Binghamton University anthropologist, was a co-author of the study led by Anders Gtherstrm at Uppsala University and Love Daln at the Swedish Museum of Natural History, and published in the journal Molecular Biology and Evolution.Meanwhile, lead author and project leader, and curator of physical anthropology at The Cleveland Museum of Natural History, United States, Dr. Yohannes Haile-Selassie, said, 'the Burtele partial foot clearly shows that at 3.4 million years ago, Lucy's species, which walked upright on two legs, was not the only hominin species living in this region of Ethiopia.'Her species co-existed with close relatives who were more adept at climbing trees, like 'Ardi's' species, Ardipithecus ramidus, which lived 4.4 million years ago.'The partial foot is the first evidence for the presence of at least two pre-human species with different modes of locomotion contemporaneously living in eastern Africa around 3.4 million years ago. While the big toe of the foot in Lucy's species was aligned with the other four toes for human-like bipedal walking, the Burtele foot has an opposable big toe like the earlier Ardi.
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