MRD-VP-1/1

MRD-VP-1/1 is a fossilized cranium of the species Australopithecus anamensis.[1] The first piece of MRD, the upper jaw, was found by Ali Bereino, a local Afar worker, on February 10, 2016, at Miro Dora, Mille district of the Afar Region, in present-day Ethiopia.[2]

MRD
Catalog no.MRD-VP-1/1
Common nameMRD
SpeciesAustralopithecus anamensis
Age3.8 million years
Place discoveredWoranso-Mille, Afar Region, Ethiopia
Date discoveredFebruary 10, 2016
Discovered byAli Bereino

This first cranium of A. anamensis was identified by Yohannes Haile-Selassie of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, Stephanie Melillo of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and their team members of the Woranso-Mille project in 2019.[3] Prior to this, A. anamensis was known mainly from jaws and teeth.[3]

Sedimentologist Beverly Saylor and her team members at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio dated the nearby minerals in layers of volcanic rock and determined the age of MRD as being around 3.8 million years old.[4]

Implications

According to the study, the MRD cranium and other fossils from the Afar, show that A. anamensis and A. afarensis co-existed for approximately 100,000 years.[5]

References
  1. "'Unprecedented' fossil skull reveals face of human ancestor". Science. 2019-08-28. Retrieved 2023-07-27.
  2. Strickland, Ashley (2019-08-28). "Revealing the new face of a 3.8-million-year-old early human ancestor". CNN. Retrieved 2023-07-27.
  3. "A face for Lucy's ancestor". www.mpg.de. Retrieved 2023-07-26.
  4. "Fossilised skull reveals face of early human ancestor". BBC Science Focus Magazine. Retrieved 2023-07-26.
  5. "Incredible Fossil Discovery Finally Puts a Face on an Elusive Early Hominin". Gizmodo. 2019-08-28. Retrieved 2023-07-27.


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