they were discovered three years ago in a cave near johannesburg, ut afca. it's believed the species lived over 2 million years ago. the team says the ape-like animal had a smaller brain than other homospecies like ho homoerectors. its long thumbs would a enable it to use tools. these finngsh that theymay b ana thisser er. has raised seeing hope that this is a missing leak in the evolutionary chain of ape-like animals to homosapians. the result of the refrp is published in friday's edition of the u.s. magazine "science." >>> and that's our broadcast for this hour on "newsline." we'll be back with more news in half an hour. i'm michio kijima in tokyo. thank you for watching. bye-bye.