I love when big discoveries come disturb the established idea everyone took for granted.

This week’s Nature reports of a Homo habilis (Handy man) skull fossil that was found in Kenya. Oh, ok. Thing is, it was found at a walking distance and dating of the same time period as a Homo erectus (Standing man) skull, two species supposed to have been descendants of one another.

Before this discovery, it was globally established that Homo habilis lived on Earth from about 2.5 to 1.5 million years ago, versus Homo erectus who lived just after and up to around 300 000 years ago[1], as a descendant of Homo habilis. This new Homo erectus skull was dated at about 1.55 million years, older than the Homo habilis skull which revealed a 1.44 million years age. According to experts, this could give both species a cohabitation time frame of about 500 000 years!

This challenges the classic evolution illustration we were shown so much while growing up: that image sequence of the homo genus, going from a more ape-like species to the modern Homo sapiens sapiens (us!).

This discovery is huge, calling for the dismissing of the linear model of human evolution for a more chaotic and unorganized one (which when you think of it, makes much more sense considering the size of our planet).

This is so great. I love science.

– Pierre Nick

[1] Every source I checked had a difference of a few thousands of years, and I’m not a paleontologist or an anthropologist mind you!

Main article in Nature:
Spoor, F. et al. “Implications of new early Homo fossils from Ileret, east of Lake Turkana, Kenya“. Nature 448, 688-691 (2007).

References:
Hopkins, Michael. “Twin fossil find adds twist to human evolution” (2007-08-08). Nature.com [retrieved 2007-08-14]

Wilford, John. “Fossils in Kenya Challenge Linear Evolution“. The New York Times (2007-08-08) [retrieved on 2007-08-14] [Bugmenot required]

Borenstein, Seth. “Fossils Challenge Old Evolution Theory“. The Associated Press (2007-08-08). [retrieved on WashingtonPost.com 2007-08-14]