New fossils in Georgia raised many questions by Nina Gotzmannova

The Earth revealed another of its secrets. Recently found remains of three adults and a teenager in Georgia opened more questions than answered. The rare finding may fill the gap in human evolution, but with its extraordinary features it may create absolutely new theory. The skeletons were found near of Georgian town of Dmanisi, a famous archeological location. Its history as major medieval Georgian commercial center determined the place as a popular archeological location. But the latest finding is the eldest; age of the remains is 1.77 million years. The fossils are the oldest hominis found outside Africa. It is still unclear to archeologists whether the skeletons are relatives of Homo erectus or Homo habilis. Their spines are human-like, their feet have well developed arches, the small gap between size of males and females put them into Homo erectus category. But their also have in common many features as Homo habilis has, such as brain-to-body mass ratio or their body size. Similar fossils were found in 1999 and 2001 in Dmanisi and they were assigned into special category of human ancestors called Homo georgicus. This specie would be the relative of both Homo habilis and Homo erectus, something like an offspring of two different hominine species with different features of two stages of human evolution. The former theories stated that Homo erectus develop from Homo habilis, the newer said is more likely Homo habilis and Homo erectus sprang from the same ancestors and co-existed together. There have been other discoveries in Africa approving this theory. A Homo erectus scull that is 1.55 million years old and a Homo habilis jaw that is 1.44 million years old extended the time period when the species coexisted together. It's less likely they were family; most possibly they were just neighbors.

related story: http://uk.news.yahoo.com/afp/20070919/tsc-science-paleontology-anthropology-ge-c2ff8aa_1.html

by Nina Gotzmannova for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

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