Palaeontology

Human skin found on 2-million-year-old fossil

By T.K. Randall
May 10, 2015 ·  15 comments

The well-preserved skin belonged to a prehistoric human ancestor. Image Credit: CC BY-SA 3.0 Cicero Moraes The tissue, which was found on fossil remains unearthed in a cave near Johannesburg, belonged to an early human ancestor called Australopithecus sediba, a transitional species that bridged the gap between the first primates to walk upright and the more recent Homo genus to which modern humans belong.

The cave, which appears to posses a unique rock composition capable of preserving organic material, has so far yielded many new clues to how this early species would have lived and died.

In addition to discovering the remains of six skeletons experts were even able to determine what these ancient primates had been eating by retrieving traces of food from between their teeth.There are also believed to be many more fossils buried there just waiting to be found.

"Every time we open up a little bit of rock here and move a little bit of dirt, we see someone new," said anthropologist Professor Lee Berger from the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg.

"We're introduced to another one of these people that died 2 million years ago."

Source: IB Times | Comments (15)

Tags: Early Man