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German archaeologists have unearthed a set of fossilised teeth, which are 9.7 million years old and hold a great and ancient mystery.
Archaeologists found the fossilised dental remains in a former riverbed of the river Rhine – close to the town of Eppelsheim near Mainz – and soon realised there was something highly unusual going on.
In fact, this seemingly simple discovery – made after painstakingly sifting through sand and gravel – may well have the potential to completely rewrite human history as we know it.
The ancient teeth were puzzling because they didn’t seem to belong to any species found in either Europe or Asia.
The closest resemblance is to ‘Lucy’ (Australopithecus afarensis) and ‘Ardi’ (Ardipithecus ramidus), very early hominin skeletons found in Ethiopia.
The teeth were dug up close to the remains of a long extinct genus of horse, which helped the team to figure out the age of the teeth.
Strangely, these teeth predate ‘Lucy’ and ‘Ardi’ by at least four million years, making them extremely mysterious.
Fossil evidence has long shown how great apes were living in Europe millions of years ago.
However, this could well be the first confirmed case of hominins – a species which is closely related to modern humans – on the European continent
originally posted by: JustaBill
a reply to: punkinworks10
I really enjoy threads like this. For a brief moment you can drift off just imagining what things were like back then. Thank you for the information.
originally posted by: TobyFlenderson
a reply to: Phage
Not directly. But the current thought is that human life evolved in Africa and then spread out. If equally developed ancestors were present other places, and much earlier, that may throw a monkey wrench into that theory.
originally posted by: punkinworks10..snip...
originally posted by: JustaBill
a reply to: Phage
I agree and can't imagine the toll something like that would take on someones life.
originally posted by: Hanslune
originally posted by: punkinworks10..snip...
Interesting stuff, it appears to be an unknown ape. Whether it was in the branch that led to humans is unknown.