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Nature 410, 526-527 (29 March 2001) | doi:10.1038/35069164

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Palaeoanthropology:  Our newest oldest ancestor?

Leslie C. Aiello1 & Mark Collard1

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These are exciting times in the study of human origins. But excitement needs to be tempered with caution in assessing the claim of a six-million-year-old direct ancestor of modern humans.

Last month a team of French and Kenyan researchers, led by Brigitte Senut and Martin Pickford, published their discovery of 12 fossils, including fragmentary thigh and arm bones as well as several teeth, that they claim belong to a previously unrecognized genus and species of human ancestor1, 2. Originally dubbed 'Millennium man' or 'Millennium ancestor', these fossils come from the Lukeino Formation of the Tugen Hills in Kenya.

  1. Leslie C. Aiello and Mark Collard are in the Department of Anthropology, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK.

Correspondence to: Leslie C. Aiello1 e-mail: Email: l.aiello@ucl.ac.uk