Possible Implications
"Based on this fossil, that means the split is much earlier than has been anticipated by the molecular evidence. That means everything has to be put back," said researcher at the Rift Valley Research Service in Ethiopia and a co-author of the study, Berhane Asfaw. This refers to the calibration of the molecular clock, the average rate of fixation of neutral mutations in the human and ape ancestors living in this environment over the past 10 million years. The human-gorilla split could only occur 10 million years ago if the mutations arose five times slower than previously thought, suggesting that other common ancestors of great apes likewise arose longer ago than believed.
Read more about this topic: Chororapithecus Abyssinicus
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