A CHALLENGER for the title of oldest human ancestor has emerged from
Ethiopia. The 5.8-million-year-old contender, which weighs in at around the same
size as a modern chimpanzee, threatens to boot the reigning champion, Millennium
Ancestor, down to the lower branches of the evolutionary tree.
The dawn of humankind occurred 5 to 7 million years ago, when the ancestors
of apes and humans went their separate evolutionary ways. But the fossil record
of this split is scarce.
Last year, scientists in Kenya announced they had found the earliest
human-like animal, Orrorin tugenensis, which they dubbed Millennium Ancestor
(New Scientist, 16…