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Fossils of Man's Oldest Ancestor Found in Kenya
French and Kenyan scientists have unearthed fossilized remains of mankind's earliest ancestor that predate previous discoveries by more than 1.5 million years, Kenya's major newspaper East African Standard reported on Tuesday, December 5.
"Millennium man", the nickname of the hominid creature, was discovered in the Tugen hills of Kenya's Baringo district on October 25 by a team from College de France in Paris and the Community Museums of Kenya.
"This discovery concerns all humans on earth," paleontologist Martin Pickford told a news conference in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi on Monday.
"It is at least 6 million years old, which means it is older than the remains found at Aramis in Ethiopia, which were 4.5 million years old," he said.
Scientists found that the fossilized creature is chimpanzee-sized, which is believed to walk predominantly on its back legs but also has strong arms for climbing trees.
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