M4 Montage: Four different Australopithecus skulls, found in stefontaine caves in South Africa. The Trapfontein cave fill containing this and other Australopithecus fossils dates back 3.4 million to 3.6 million years, much older than previously thought. This new date overturns the long-held notion that Australopithecus is a young branch of the East African Australopithecus.
Fossils of early human ancestors from a cave in South Africa are 3.4 million to 3.6 million years old, 1 million years earlier than previously speculated, shaking the way researchers understand human origin and evolution.
This new date makes the Sterkfontein cave fossil older than Ethiopia's famous Lucy fossil (also known as Dinkinesh), discovered in 1979.
These dates indicate that Australopithecus overlaps with members of the genus Man, as well as a large-toothed hominid called Paranthropus. Based on this idea, researchers have so far accepted that Australopithecus is a descendant of the East African species, just like Lucy and other members of the Arphalian ape.
"Our age shows that this can't be true because they're actually the same age," Granger said. "There must have been older common ancestors.
It also gave more time to the evolution of south African species and reopened discussions about the role of South African species in later humans such as Paranthropus. ”
Dominique Stratford, co-author of the study and head of the cave study and professor at the University of the Golden Mount in Johannesburg, said reassessing the age of Sterkfontein Australopiths had important implications for how South Africa played a role in the diversification and expansion of our early human ancestors.