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CNN Live At Daybreak

Just in 'TIME': How Apes Became Human

Aired July 16, 2001 - 08:36   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BRIAN NELSON, CNN ANCHOR: And now it's time for our "Just in 'TIME'" segment. Now there's a -- this week's "TIME" magazine has a cover article that says that we may have discovered or some scientist has discovered -- found -- what may be our oldest ancestor. And the remains were found in Ethiopia.

And so we're going to discuss that this morning with Michael Lemonick from "TIME" magazine who was responsible for researching and writing this article.

Good morning.

MICHAEL LEMONICK, "TIME": Good morning.

I've got to correct you. I was solely responsible for writing it. My colleague, Andrea Dorfman, did most of the research.

NELSON: All right, fair enough. Start and tell us about this discovery. I think it was in Ethiopia, right?

LEMONICK: Yes, it was in Ethiopia. And it was just reported last week in "Nature" Magazine. Researchers found several bones from what is apparently our oldest ancestor from the time when humans split off from the chimps and began our road to modern humanity.

NELSON: First of all, how were they able to determine the age with any precision?

LEMONICK: You can determine the age by looking at the soil that this stuff is found in -- the ancient sediments and dating it radioactively. And that's how they found out that it was between 5.8 and 5.4 million years old.

NELSON: Now, correct me if I'm wrong, isn't there also the Millennium Man, who is reportedly -- reported to be six million years old?

LEMONICK: Right, and that's why we say "may be" our oldest ancestor. Millennium Man is not universally accepted as a hominid -- as one of our ancestors. The people who found it claim it is and there's more evidence still to come out. But so far the world of paleoanthropology says this is the oldest to date.

NELSON: Anthropologically speaking then, what is the significance of this find and the date that you believe that this fossil came from?

LEMONICK: Well, the significance is that we think that we split off from the chimps, which are our closest cousins, about six million years ago give or take a few million or a few hundred thousand. And this is now getting us back to that very time. So we are looking at maybe the first creatures that are in the human line. And we're being to understand what it is that enabled us to walk up right and -- which is the thing that really distinguished us from the chimps early on.

NELSON: Is that the distinguishing factor? Many people have often thought that it was the acquisition, I guess, of an advanced brain that set us apart from the chimps?

LEMONICK: Right. And that's what people used to think awhile ago. But it's pretty clear that we began to walk upright a couple of million years at least before we developed our larger brain. So the walking upright was really the first step, literally and figuratively -- the brains came later.

NELSON: What is the significance of walking upright then and how do you think we got there?

LEMONICK: Well, the significance is -- it really seems that it simply put us in a position where we started using our hands and learned to fashion tools and somehow that lead to the conditions that enabled larger brain development -- we're not sure how. But it somehow set the stage for our brains eventually to develop.

NELSON: I think -- go ahead -- keep going -- I don't want to interrupt.

LEMONICK: Well, I was just going to say that how it happened is kind of unclear. We somehow started doing it. The real question is why we kept doing it because for beings that were very similar to chimps and apes it would have been very uncomfortable and physically not a natural position. So something about it must have given us an advantage and that allowed it to persist. And to us -- for us to adapt physically to do it better.

NELSON: And very quickly, you're able to do this by the examination of that foot bone that you had found. Is that right?

LEMONICK: Well, the foot bone proves that it did walk upright and examination of somewhat later fossils that we think came from this tell us that our entire bodies from the spine through the pelvis through the leg bones all changed shape subtly to let us walk upright easily.

NELSON: Amazing story. So far back we can hardly think about it. Michael Lemonick, thank you for being with us this morning. Michael Lemonick from "TIME" magazine, who wrote the article -- the cover story: "How Apes Became Human." That's in this week's "TIME" magazine.

Thanks.

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