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"gewg_" writes:

Chalachew Seyoum, an Arizona State University grad student, has found a piece of jawbone that pushes back the existence of our genus Homo by 400,000 years to 2.8 million years ago.

National Geographic notes:

The new jaw, known as LD 350-1, was found in January 2013 just a dozen miles from where [the mostly-complete skeleton of an Australopithecus afarensis known as] Lucy was found in 1974.

[...] Fossils attributed to Homo in the period two to three million years ago are exceedingly rare.

[...] To the extent that the new jaw underscores an East African origin for the genus Homo, it would seem to confound the argument made by other researchers that the best candidate for our [genus'] immediate ancestor is a South African australopithecine, Australopithecus sediba.

El Reg adds:

The find is small--a tiny piece of jawbone from the left side of the face with five teeth embedded in it--but it tells us a huge amount about our time on the planet. The molars are small, typical of Homo species, and the bone contains a mix of ancient and more recent evolutionary features.