17-million-year-old Whale Skull Helps Place Humanity's First Steps

A 17-million-year-old beaked whale fossil is helping researchers solve a puzzle about the likely birthplace of humanity in East Africa, a new study finds. Researchers determined the species lived when the East African plateau was substantially lower and covered by dense forests. Scientists have long tried to figure out when the uplift occurred, because when it did, the moisture from the Indian Ocean could no longer reach the trees and vegetation, and the area turned into a savannah. Extinct ancestors to modern humans may have lived up trees in East Africa, but after the area turned into grassland, these early humans gradually began walking on two feet, research suggests. Researchers sought to discover when this uplift occurred as a milestone for the bipedal evolution of our species' ancestors. The whale fossil helped researchers close on that date now believed to have occurred between 17 million and 13.5 million years ago.