Scientists have discovered the bones of what is thought to be the oldest human species in a cave in South Africa. The study shows that the earliest ancestor of human being was probably a toothy little cannibal.
According to a report, scientists found some two million- to 800,000-year-old fossil-skull pieces, jaws, teeth, and other bones at the Sterkfontein caves complex in South Africa's Gauteng Province. The research indicates that this is the earliest ancestors of man discovered by far, which were named Homo gautengensis.
Homo gautengensis were living two million- to 600,000 years ago. They were thought to measure 3ft 6 in height and weighed just over 50kg. They were also able to communicate by verbal language. Compared with modern humans, the new species had proportionally long arms, a projecting face somewhat like a chimp's, larger teeth, and a smaller brain.
Though the teeth of Homo gautengensis proved they had begun to eat plant, the ancestor of man was by no means vegetarian. Along with the burned and de-fleshed bones, the marks on the Stw 53 skull suggest that the man 'was certainly on the menu of Homo gautengensis.'
