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A face for Lucy's ancestor

Researchers discover remarkably complete 3.8 million-year-old cranium of Australopithecus anamensis at Woranso-Mille in Ethiopia

Australopithecus anamensis is the earliest-known species of Australopithecus and widely accepted as the progenitor of “Lucy’s” species, Australopithecus afarensis. Until now, A. anamensis was known mainly from jaws and teeth. Yohannes Haile-Selassie of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, Stephanie Melillo of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and their colleagues have discovered the first cranium of A. anamensis at the paleontological site of Woranso-Mille, in the Afar Region of Ethiopia.

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© Dale Omori, Cleveland Museum of Natural History