Daily Mail - 29.08.2019

Page 35

team discovered the skull, said:

‘It was a dream come true.’

Dr Stephanie Melillo, from the

Max Planck Institute for Evolu-

tionary Anthropology in Germany

and a co-author of two papers on

the find in the journal Nature,

said: ‘Australopithecus anamen-

sis was already a species that we

knew about, but... it is good to be

able to put a face to the name.’

Despite its small size, the skull

is believed to have belonged to an

adult living in dry shrubland. The

findings suggest our oldest ances-

tor lived at the same time as

Lucy’s species for at least 100,000

years. Previously it was thought

Australopithecus anamensis had

died out to be replaced by Lucy’s

species.

Fred Spoor, of the Natural His-

tory of Museum, said the skull is

‘another icon of human evolution’.

Our oldest ancestor

Scientists recreate the face

of 3.8million-year-old human

set to be ‘an icon of evolution’

Bare bones: The original skull One of the family: Face of Australopithecus anamensis

By Victoria Allen

Science Correspondent

HE might have a few lines

around the eyes – but for

3.8million years old he looks

remarkably well.

For this is the face of our oldest

direct ancestor, reconstructed

from a rare, nearly-complete

skull.

The adult male cranium was discov-

ered at the Woranso-Mille fossil site in

central Ethiopia.

It is Australopithecus anamensis, an

ancient human even older than ‘Lucy’

• the famous ‘mother of man’ who is a
  relatively youthful 3.2million years old.
  Scientists – who have long debated
  whether other fossils come from early
  humans or ancestral apes – appear to
  agree that this is the oldest undis-
  puted human skull discovered yet.
  It allows them to put a ‘face to the
  name’ of an ancestor we previously
  only knew from fragments of teeth
  and jaw.
  Dr Yohannes Haile-Selassie, whose

Daily Mail, Thursday, August 29, 2019

‘It’s been a fun funeral but I’m not

sure about the bouncy castle’

GOD is being removed from funer-

als in favour of fun, fancy dress and

even fireworks.

Just one in ten Britons want a tra-

ditional ceremony, while more

than one in three prefer a family

celebration based on smiles rather

than tears, according to a survey

of Co-op funeral directors.

Three-quarters of them say they

have seen an increase in requests

for ceremonies outside traditional

settings, which have included a

zoo, a tepee and a golf course.

Four in five funerals by the firm

are now cremations – with reports

of ashes being scattered on a sky-

dive, by firework, or used in tattoo

ink. Samantha Tyrer, from Co-op

Funeralcare, said: ‘The funeral

sector is rapidly changing.’

Laughter and

fun? Well, it IS

your funeral

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