April
01
/ 2013
The Smithsonian Institution's Hall of Human Origins has announced that one of its scientists has discovered a hominid skull fragment that is approximately 5 million years old, drawing Darwin’s theory of human origins into question. The skull fragment, which was unearthed at an excavation site in Washington DC has been designated to belong to a new species called Homo washingtoniensis or ‘Washington Man’. Scientific theory has long believed that our earliest human ancestor came from Africa. This was based on the discovery of a 4.4 million year old hominid in Ethiopia in 1992 called Ardipithecus ramidus ("Ardi"). However, the story of human evolution will now have to be radically revised in light of the latest finding. "Instead of originating in
