The planet looked decidedly modern, except for one important omission: it lacked a big-brained species walking on two legs. Hints to the revolution afoot are first seen inside rocks about 7 million years old from what are today Chad and Kenya. A French team, working at the margin of a lake bed, unearthed a chunk of a skull that has a remarkable mix of traits. With large brow ridges above the eyes and a small cranium, it looks something like a chimpanzee. But the snout and face are far too small for any chimp: these traits are decidedly humanlike. More clues come from slightly younger rocks in Kenya. The portions of femurs and other leg bones that have been found are straight, much like those of a creature that spends time moving about on two legs. Something was happening, as new kinds of apes lived, and perhaps even walked, on the planet. These creatures certainly didn’t know it, but the ground under their feet was changing. The continent of Africa was beginning to fracture. Upheavals deep within Earth caused the crust to tear, opening up a rift that began to unzip the continent from north to south.
What do You think about The Universe Within (2013)?
