The 21st century has so far been a golden age of hominin discovery. New species like the 7-million-year-old Sahelanthropus tchadensis and the 300,000-year-old Homo naledi have added to our understanding of humanity鈥檚 past. And the finds will keep coming.
鈥淚t doesn鈥檛 look like [we鈥檙e] sampling something that is running out,鈥� says at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. 鈥淚 think in part there鈥檚 a greater intensity of exploration right now.鈥�
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There鈥檚 a good chance that a new species will be revealed in 2018, with rumours swirling of two major finds that could answer many questions.
鈥淯ndoubtedly, the biggest gap is between 4 and 7 million years,鈥� says at University College London. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a huge amount of time that鈥檚 so far represented by just a few bits and bobs.鈥� Any hominins from that period are almost certainly new species, and could reveal the earliest stages of hominin evolution.
at the University of Toronto, Canada, wants northerly fossils. In 2017 he studied Graecopithecus, an extinct European ape from 7.25 million years ago. He claimed it might have been a hominin, meaning Europe was home to early hominins. 鈥淚 would obviously like to see more complete material attributable to Graecopithecus or one of its relatives,鈥� says Begun.
But for many, the focus is Africa 3 to 3.5 million years ago. In the 1990s we thought only one hominin lived back then 鈥� Lucy鈥檚 species Australopithecus afarensis, which seemed likely to be our ancestor. But in 2001 Spoor revealed a second: Kenyanthropus platyops.
It may be crucial, as it might have been . K. platyops and humans (Homo) seem to belong in the same group, with burly hominins called Paranthropus. If so, Homo and Paranthropus emerged in Kenyanthropus鈥榮 time. There鈥檚 no trace of them so early 鈥� so far.
This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淢eet ourlong-lost relative鈥�
