Archaeologists have announced that fossils discovered at a site near Nairobi, Kenya, seven years ago are remains of Australopithecus Afarensis, an extinct hominin that lived three million years ago.

This is a confirmation that early humans lived in both highlands and lowland savannah where their remains had been discovered earlier.

The remains were dug up by a team of scientists, led by Dr Emma Mbua of Mount Kenya University, from Kantis Fossil Site, an archaeological dig near the Ngong Hills. This is the first time that this species has been discovered in Kenya, and away from the Rift Valley.

Australopithecus Afarensis had previously been discovered in neighbouring Tanzania and in Ethiopia where it was christened “Lucy.”

“This species was previously thought not to exist in Kenya, so this discovery has thrust Kenya once again into the limelight as the home of one of the most important archaeological discoveries. That A. Afarensis existed in highlands as well as lowland savannah shows that it was very adaptable,” said Dr Mbua.

Important site

In 2009, the scientists dug up the remains of an arm bone, an adult tooth and two baby teeth, which they dated as between 3.4 and 3.6 million years old.

Research into the fossil site has been going on for the past four years and was published in the online version of the Journal of Human Evolution, Esevier, in March.

The remains of Kenya’s “Lucy” were found on a private farm on the Ngong Hills, whose owners contacted the National Museum on a hunch that the bones in a riverbed on their property could be important.

Joseph Kesuke, 50, told Museums authorities that he had seen the fossilised bones on his family’s land since he had been a little boy but nobody ever though anything of it. He decided to call the Museums when he saw media reports about fossils that give an insight into the history of man.

The museum is currently trying to get the site gazetted so that it is protected as a research and tourist centre. “It is our expectations that the Kanti site due to its proximity to Nairobi city, will serve as an important tourist destination in addition to research, and will attract visitors interested in early human development story,” said the National Museums of Kenya.

Other Kenyan sites that have yielded important discoveries relating to the origins of humanity man include Koobi Fora, Kanapoi and Nariokotome on the eastern and western side of Lake Turkana respectively.