Reconstruction of the environment where Little Garba livedArtwork by Diego Rodriguez Robredo
New research has shed light on the remarkable adaptability of Homo erectus, our ancestor from two million years ago. This early human species not only adjusted to the environment but also rapidly spread beyond the lowland savannahs of East Africa into the high-altitude Ethiopian highlands. The study also linked Acheulean and Oldowan tools to this period of habitation in the highlands.
Published in Science, the study presents a reanalysis of a fossilised mandible from an early hominin that was discovered in 1981 at Ethiopia's Garba IV site in Melka Kunture, which is currently on the tentative list of Ethiopia’s UNESCO's world heritage sites. The researchers believe it represents the earliest Homo erectus fossil and is linked to the earliest evidence of the production of Acheulean tools.
A hand axe found by Homo Erectus researchers
“This is a game-changer as the understanding was that hominins evolved at the lower and much drier altitudes of the Great Rift Valley. With the Little Garba mandible we have discovered that early Homo erectus was living at 2,000 metres altitude in a cool and rainy climate and with Afromontane not savanna vegetation,” lead researcher Margherita Mussi, who studies archaeology at the Department of Ancient Sciences, Sapienza University, Italy, told Nature Africa.
The findings help us to better understand how hominins were able to adapt and to expand outside Africa to places with a different climate and vegetation, she said.
