Fossils belong to new great ape
BBC News, UK - August 22, 2007
Nine fossilised teeth found in Ethiopia are from a previously unknown species of great ape, Nature journal reports.
The 10 million-year-old fossils belong to an animal that has been named Cororapithecus abyssinicus by the Ethiopian-Japanese team.
This new species could be a direct ancestor of living African great apes, say the researchers.
The finds from the Afar rift, in eastern Ethiopia, raise questions on current theories of human evolution.
The researchers say the fossils from Ethiopia probably belonged to an ape from the gorilla family ...
The teeth were discovered in a region called the Afar rift in Ethiopia, about 170km (106 miles) east of Addis Ababa.
In an area of the Oromiya National Regional State, there are exposed patches of sediments that are 10 to 11 million years old, from the Miocene era, which are known as Miocene Chorora Formation.
The name of the ape is taken from the geological formation Chorora and the former name of Ethiopia, Abyssinia ...