article_snippet: A momentous and valuable piece of our evolutionary history has gone on display to the public.
article_snippet: It is significant because it suggests our first human ancestors emerged 400,000 years earlier than previously thought.
article_snippet: The discovery, which was found in the Ledi-Geraru area of Afar, has put a new date on the emergence of the first 'man' from our more ape-like ancestors.
article_snippet: To have a glimpse of the very earliest phase of our lineage’s evolution is particularly exciting. '
article_snippet: The new discovery has helped to fill a huge gap in the fossil record.
article_snippet: The moment I found the fossil, I realised that the fossil was important, as this is the time period represented by few fossils in Eastern Africa,’ student Chalachew Seyoum told BBC News last night.
article_snippet: These are thought to be one of the main driving forces that led to the evolution of the Homo lineage and eventually our own species.
article_snippet: The new fossil has helped fill a huge gap in the evolutionary history (above) of how the Homo family appeared .
article_snippet: Dr Simon Underdown, an anthropologist at Oxford Brookes University, said the discovery of LD could help scientists unravel the complex beginnings of our own species.
article_snippet: Dr Simon Underdown, an anthropologist at Oxford Brookes University said: 'It gives our a better understanding of what was happening at the earlier end of the genus Homo. '
highlights_snippet: Discovery has helped fill a huge gap in the fossil record of our evolution .
  
highlights_snippet: Scientists say Discovery could provide new clues about how our species evolved .