Caroline Wafula
14 November 2007
Nairobi — Researchers have made a major fossil discovery in Kenya which, they say, could be the last common ancestor of humans and African apes.
The species named Nakalipithecus nakayamai by a Kenyan and Japanese team could be the missing link in the evolution theory of man, gorillas and chimpanzees, according to Dr Fredrick Manthi, a senior research scientist at the National Museums of Kenya.
"Based on this particular discovery, we can now comfortably say that we are approaching the point at which we can pin down the so-called missing link," archeologist said on Tuesday.
The new finding is a 10-million year fossil jaw and 11 isolated teeth that represent a new species of the great ape and researchers place the age of the specimens at between 9.80 and 9.88 million years.
The species was found along the volcanic mud flow deposits in the Nakali region of Kenya, 40 kilometres from Maralal. The area is situated on the Eastern shoulder of the central Kenya Rift.
According to the Museums team, the name Nakalipithecus was derived from place of discovery while Nakayamai was a Japanese geologist working on the project, but died in the course of studies.
Although it was discovered in 2005 by an the Museums crew, the fossil has been undergoing various tests both in Japan and locally leading to the results announced on Tuesday.
Study of the fossil was done under a joint palaeontological project by a team of from the Museums and Japanese university researchers.
National Museums director general Farah Idle said the discovery was the most likely ancestor of the African great apes and humans. It was closest genetically to the human being.
He added that it had great importance for research on African great apes and human origins because of the poor nature of the fossil record on the evolution of the super family of human beings and apes in Africa after the mid miocene (geological period, 12 to 17 million years ago).
"It will greatly contribute to the expansion of knowledge on human evolution and will inform us on the details of the process," Dr Idle said.
The discovery makes it more likely that the ancestor of the African great apes and humans evolved in Africa, and researchers said its presence on Kenyan soil shows the creature lived in the country nine million years ago.
Some researchers have previously proposed that the last common ancestor for both humans and modern apes returned from Eurasia where a number of fossil apes are known.
The Museums said more fossil discoveries will make clear the relationship between the Nakali and the Greek hominoid and circumstances of hominoid migrations between Africa and Eurasia.
"We have to find more fossils from a cross-section of sites to sustain that particular theory," Dr Manthi said.
The researchers said the discovery suggests that it is highly likely that large bodied hominoids survived through the Middle to Late Miocene in Africa, giving rise to the last common ancestor of African great apes and humans.
Nakalipithecus nakayamai shows more primitive features such as better expressed form and structure of the teeth, covered in thick enamel and caps that are low and more broad.
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