Since we are a product of our evolutionary history, understanding what our early ancestors were like, how they behaved and interacted, should help us position ourselves in the world. Dr. Daniel E. Lieberman, a paleontologist at George Washington University.
Paleontologists study life during past geological periods as known from fossil remains.
From the cranium and partial jaw Dr. Leakey and colleagues determined that this individual was unlike its contemporary hominid, Australopithecus afarensis, better known as Lucy. Lucy's face resembled a chimpanzee's, and her species was generally assumed to be humanity's direct ancestor. But the Leakey specimen's flat face and small molars seem to anticipate the look of later hominids. That means this new fossil comes from a creature completely different from anything else in the hominid family. The skull was found in an excavation on the western side of Lake Turkana in northern Kenya.