A new site has been discovered in Kenya; called Kanti. It seems to date to sometime between 2.5 - 3.5 million years ago and contains 4 Australopithecus afarensis fossils. One of them is an arm. Almost 30 species of other animals (represented by ~1,200 fossils) were also found.
Unfortunatley the four hominin fossils aren't that exciting. They clearly belong to Au. afarensis; being effectively normal in every way. It does have a few minor differences with some of the other members of this species, but these appear to be traits that develop during life. Some of their arm muscles, for example, might not have been quite so large as in others. A fact that could simply be explained by them not doing enough crossfit.
Although the fossils aren't much to look at, the location of this site is particularly important as it shows Lucy's species spread much further south than previously thought. This demonstrates they lived very close to the contemporary Laetoli footprints. These footprints have taught us an awful lot about hominins around this period walked. Since Au. afarensis was the only known contemporary species; it was assumed they made the footprints. However, until now they lived a bit too far away to make this fact unquestionable. This new site puts to rest any lingering doubts someone might have had.
This site also seems to have been a lot more open in the past. There was less tree cover at Kanti than at some other Australopithecus sites. However, just like the bones this doesn't tell us much new. We know Au. afarensis lived in a lot of different environments, including some very open ones. The fact they managed to go slightly more open doesn't reveal too much about them. But what is interesting is that this shift towards open environments is often linked to the evolution of upright walking. It is thought our ancestors had to get better and better at it to travel across the open grasslands. Spending more time upright might also explain why the arm muscles of these fossils aren't that great.
Kanti is a seems like a small step for Au. afarensis, but it looks like it might be a step forwards in human evolution.
Reference
Mbua, E., Kusaka, S., Kunimatsu, Y., Geraads, D., Sawada, Y., Brown, F.H., Sakai, T., Boisserie, J.R., Saneyoshi, M., Omuombo, C. and Muteti, S., 2016. Kantis: A new Australopithecus site on the shoulders of the Rift Valley near Nairobi, Kenya. Journal of Human Evolution, 94, pp.28-44.
