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Really Old Ancestors: Another "Missing Link"
Aired June 11, 2003 - 15:43 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.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, they weren't exactly like us. I mean, after all, they didn't watch American Idol. But they are close enough to be called homo sapiens. Nothing wrong with that.
Three skulls 160,000 years old have been unearthed in Ethiopia. They are the oldest remains ever found of our immediate predecessors.
CNN's Ann Kellan is here to tell us about this big find. This is big news in the world of paleontology.
ANN KELLAN, CNN SCIENCE CORRESPONDENT: These are close relatives. New branch. New branch to the family tree.
O'BRIEN: They look just like me.
KELLAN: Yes -- well, we'll talk about that in a minute. They also found some interesting marks on these skulls that indicate they -- these early humans practiced early death rituals. Basically these humans, in many ways, looked a lot like this.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KELLAN (voice-over): This is what many researchers now think our newest and oldest ancestor looked like, based on this 160, 000-year- old skull discovered near a small village in eastern Ethiopia by an international team of researchers led by University of California biologist Tim White.
The most in-tact fossil found was the skull of a 20 to 30-year- old man. A second adult skull was found in pieces, as was the skull of a 6 or 7-year-old child.
TIM WHITE, UC BERKLEY: Cleaning those specimens, putting them together took years. But as the face emerged from the sediment during the process, we came to see the face of an ancestor.
KELLAN: According to White, these skulls belong to a newly created subspecies called Homo sapien adulto (ph), meaning "old man." It's a Homo sapien, but with a slightly larger skull and brain case and longer face than modern humans, Homo sapien sapiens.
WHITE: Very, very large, robust male. Prominent brow ridges, prominent cheek bones -- and this canine fausa (ph). Very strong neck muscle attachments on the cranium. These are features only seen in modern humans.
KELLAN: The skulls came from decapitated bodies.
WHITE: They were keeping the skulls of the dead around and modifying them long after death. So it's some kind of an early ritual behavior that we've come across in these early African populations.
KELLAN: Near the skulls, White's group also uncovered tools, some, he says, used to hunt large game.
WHITE: We know from their implements that they were very sophisticated people making large cutting tools that they used to butcher things like hippos.
It's opened a window on a time period that we previously had no knowledge in.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KELLAN: Now, White says these skulls are further proof that man evolved from Africa, that we are not direct descendants of Neanderthal man. Rather, he says, modern man descended from the African species who eventually traveled across the world.
O'BRIEN: OK, so who is our great-great-great-great-great grandpa, then?
KELLAN: Well, we have a little video to show and we want to look back a million years or so to see our family tree. Let's take a snapshot.
It starts with Homo erectus with that brow. Look at that big browline and an ape-like face and a smaller brain.
And then we move on to this new guy, adulto, which is a Homo sapien. That comes 160,000 years.
And then to Homo sapien sapien, which is what we are. You see a resemblance between Homo erectus and us?
O'BRIEN: Well, a lot of people tell me I have a heavy brow, so now I don't know....
KELLAN: Well, there you go. Now you know where you got it from. Homo erectus.
O'BRIEN: I could have been an offshoot, somehow. All right.
Well, in the grand scheme of things, this is a big find, isn't it?
KELLAN: Significant find, and they say there are millions of tools, and more to find at this site. So they're really looking forward to seeing and going back and finding maybe the bodies because they only found the skulls and they have not found the bodies yet.
O'BRIEN: Fascinating. All right. Ann Kellan, thank you very much for sharing that with us. We appreciate it. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired June 11, 2003 - 15:43 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, they weren't exactly like us. I mean, after all, they didn't watch American Idol. But they are close enough to be called homo sapiens. Nothing wrong with that.
Three skulls 160,000 years old have been unearthed in Ethiopia. They are the oldest remains ever found of our immediate predecessors.
CNN's Ann Kellan is here to tell us about this big find. This is big news in the world of paleontology.
ANN KELLAN, CNN SCIENCE CORRESPONDENT: These are close relatives. New branch. New branch to the family tree.
O'BRIEN: They look just like me.
KELLAN: Yes -- well, we'll talk about that in a minute. They also found some interesting marks on these skulls that indicate they -- these early humans practiced early death rituals. Basically these humans, in many ways, looked a lot like this.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KELLAN (voice-over): This is what many researchers now think our newest and oldest ancestor looked like, based on this 160, 000-year- old skull discovered near a small village in eastern Ethiopia by an international team of researchers led by University of California biologist Tim White.
The most in-tact fossil found was the skull of a 20 to 30-year- old man. A second adult skull was found in pieces, as was the skull of a 6 or 7-year-old child.
TIM WHITE, UC BERKLEY: Cleaning those specimens, putting them together took years. But as the face emerged from the sediment during the process, we came to see the face of an ancestor.
KELLAN: According to White, these skulls belong to a newly created subspecies called Homo sapien adulto (ph), meaning "old man." It's a Homo sapien, but with a slightly larger skull and brain case and longer face than modern humans, Homo sapien sapiens.
WHITE: Very, very large, robust male. Prominent brow ridges, prominent cheek bones -- and this canine fausa (ph). Very strong neck muscle attachments on the cranium. These are features only seen in modern humans.
KELLAN: The skulls came from decapitated bodies.
WHITE: They were keeping the skulls of the dead around and modifying them long after death. So it's some kind of an early ritual behavior that we've come across in these early African populations.
KELLAN: Near the skulls, White's group also uncovered tools, some, he says, used to hunt large game.
WHITE: We know from their implements that they were very sophisticated people making large cutting tools that they used to butcher things like hippos.
It's opened a window on a time period that we previously had no knowledge in.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KELLAN: Now, White says these skulls are further proof that man evolved from Africa, that we are not direct descendants of Neanderthal man. Rather, he says, modern man descended from the African species who eventually traveled across the world.
O'BRIEN: OK, so who is our great-great-great-great-great grandpa, then?
KELLAN: Well, we have a little video to show and we want to look back a million years or so to see our family tree. Let's take a snapshot.
It starts with Homo erectus with that brow. Look at that big browline and an ape-like face and a smaller brain.
And then we move on to this new guy, adulto, which is a Homo sapien. That comes 160,000 years.
And then to Homo sapien sapien, which is what we are. You see a resemblance between Homo erectus and us?
O'BRIEN: Well, a lot of people tell me I have a heavy brow, so now I don't know....
KELLAN: Well, there you go. Now you know where you got it from. Homo erectus.
O'BRIEN: I could have been an offshoot, somehow. All right.
Well, in the grand scheme of things, this is a big find, isn't it?
KELLAN: Significant find, and they say there are millions of tools, and more to find at this site. So they're really looking forward to seeing and going back and finding maybe the bodies because they only found the skulls and they have not found the bodies yet.
O'BRIEN: Fascinating. All right. Ann Kellan, thank you very much for sharing that with us. We appreciate it. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
