<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Herbert Lutz, director of the Mainz Natural History Museum and head of the research team, </span><a href="https://merkurist.de/mainz/evolution-sensationsfund-in-mainz-praesentiert_7q6"><span style="font-weight: 400;">spoke with local media</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> about the newly discovered dental remains: “They are clearly ape teeth. Their characteristics resemble African finds that are four to five million years younger than the fossils excavated in Eppelsheim.”</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“This is a tremendous stroke of luck, but also a great mystery,” Lutz added. Local archeologist Axel von Berg says the findings will “</span><a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/teeth-fossil-human-history-evolution-development-germany-rhine-mainz-archaeology-a8010506.html"><span style="font-weight: 400;">amaze experts</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">.” </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Named after the Beatles song “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,” Lucy is </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucy_(Australopithecus)"><span style="font-weight: 400;">several hundred pieces of bone fossils</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, representing 40 percent of a female skeleton, that were discovered in Ethiopia in 1974. Later classified as a hominid and </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">designated as the species </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Australopithecus afarensis, </span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">she was previously the most ancient early human ever unearthed</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">. Michael Ebling, the mayor of Mainz, speculates that the recent dental discovery will force a reassessment of early human history. </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"I don't want to over-dramatise it, but I would hypothesise that we shall have to start rewriting the history of mankind after today," Ebling </span><a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/teeth-fossil-human-history-evolution-development-germany-rhine-mainz-archaeology-a8010506.html"><span style="font-weight: 400;">said</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">. </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Lucy and present-day humans are both classified as hominids, which is the term used for all members of the </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hominidae"><span style="font-weight: 400;">biological family </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Hominidae</span></i></a><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">.</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> Hominids (“Great Apes”) are primates that include today’s orangutan, gorilla, chimpanzee, bonobo, and human. Present day humans are of the subclassification genus </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Homo</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> (which means “human”) and the species </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">sapien</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">. Though </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Homo sapiens</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> are the only humans today, there have been other humans in the past: on the same evolutionary branch are the now extinct </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Homo neanderthalensis, </span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">and our ancestor </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Homo erectus</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">. All human species past and present are distant descendants of Lucy’s species.</span></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image"><img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMjAzOTI2OC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyOTUwOTQzMX0.2UsR__eAdDcjNF34WEWeUkgdq3MdZSRxCTbEhChwVNw/img.jpg?width=980" id="cc4fc" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="35ecfabc2a785d8d8445d7676d51dc0b" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image"><small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption..."><a href="http://reasonandscience.heavenforum.org/t2596-the-origin-of-homo-sapiens-timeline-of-human-evolution">The origin of Homo Sapiens & timeline of human evolution</a></small></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image"><img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMjAzOTI2OS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxMjI5ODMyOH0.ZEgR7I11Q0jScjKxhhpReBiMjRFZrzIlAczvpIEqT4s/img.jpg?width=980" id="620a1" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="1d76e6618162c1ac3f31dda9bc3cd68d" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image"><small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption..."><a href="https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Fmaya-gaia.angelfire.com%2Fimages%2Framidus_to_erectus.jpg&imgrefurl=http%3A%2F%2Fmaya-gaia.angelfire.com%2Fphylogeny_slideshows_refer.html&docid=hFKteN_j76MYaM&tbnid=BHGlDKJLzGPOVM%3A&vet=10ahUKEwjGkdS4mqPXAhUMwWMKHej_AUEQMwhLKA0wDQ..i&w=1165&h=786&bih=616&biw=1206&q=Australopithecus%20afarensis%20lucy%20homo%20sapiens%20&ved=0ahUKEwjGkdS4mqPXAhUMwWMKHej_AUEQMwhLKA0wDQ&iact=mrc&uact=8">National Geographic</a></small></p><p></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">Eppelsheim discovery finally provides fossil evidence that hominids, specifically a species closely related to humans, roamed Europe millions of years ago. This drastically changes </span><a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/teeth-fossil-human-history-evolution-development-germany-rhine-mainz-archaeology-a8010506.html"><span style="font-weight: 400;">the current scientific consensus that modern humans evolved out of East Africa between 400,000 and 200,000 years ago</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, before dispersing around the world as late as 70,000 years ago. </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">While the teeth are unlike anything found in Europe and Asia, Lutz is cautious to say what that means. “We want to hold back on speculation. What these finds definitely show us is that the holes in our knowledge and in the fossil record are much bigger than previously thought,” Lutz said in </span><a href="https://www.researchgate.net/blog/post/9-7-million-year-old-teeth-fossils-raise-questions-about-human-origin"><span style="font-weight: 400;">an interview with ResearchGate</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">. “It’s a complete mystery where this individual came from, and why nobody’s ever found a tooth like this somewhere before.”</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Others believe the mystery simply stems from confusion and misidentification, doubting that the teeth signify a new origin story for humans. Instead, experts like University of Toronto paleoanthropologist Bence Viola think </span><a href="https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/10/ancient-teeth-found-germany-dont-rewrite-human-history-science/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">the teeth more likely belong to a very distant branch on the primate family tree</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">. An expert on the teeth of humans' extinct relatives, Viola says that one of the teeth, a molar, contradicts any case for a human connection. “I think this is much ado about nothing,” Viola </span><a href="https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/10/ancient-teeth-found-germany-dont-rewrite-human-history-science/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">wrote to National Geographic</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">. “The second tooth (the molar), which they say clearly comes from the same individual, is absolutely not a hominin, [and] I would say also not a hominoid.”</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The teeth are currently on display at the </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">Mainz Natural History Museum. Lutz and his research team </span><a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/320518472_A_new_great_ape_with_startling_resemblances_to_African_members_of_the_hominin_tribe_excavated_from_the_Mid-Vallesian_Dinotheriensande_of_Eppelsheim_First_report_Hominoidea_Miocene_MN_9_Proto-Rhine_Riv"><span style="font-weight: 400;">published</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> their first paper last month regarding the discovery, which can be read </span><a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/320518472_A_new_great_ape_with_startling_resemblances_to_African_members_of_the_hominin_tribe_excavated_from_the_Mid-Vallesian_Dinotheriensande_of_Eppelsheim_First_report_Hominoidea_Miocene_MN_9_Proto-Rhine_Riv"><span style="font-weight: 400;">HERE</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">.</span></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image"><img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMjAzOTI3MC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxMzE0ODIzNn0.2HnusFx5M1231Y6yXBHJ0q1MEnXD1AZi3sH9jHUihXk/img.jpg?width=980" id="7bce3" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="28b7c725dc9df9f773f6b2ec746486fc" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image"><small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">This family tree shows where anthropologists have conventionally grouped various hominids that lived and evolved before humans - <a href="http://humanorigins.si.edu/">Human Origins Program/National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian</a></small></p>
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