Selam, the three-year-old from 3.3m years ago

One has to wonder how the creationists will respond to this latest scientific discovery, the body of a young girl who is half-human and half-ape.

The fossil was discovered in the Dikika region of north east Ethiopia and is believed to be the fragile bones of a young girl who lived 3.3 million years ago.

The fossilised remains reveal a critical moment in human evolution that saw our earliest relatives shaking off the legacy of ape ancestors to take their first tentative steps along a path that ultimately led to modern humans.

The remarkably complete skeleton's lower half is almost perfectly adapted to walking upright, while the upper body is more primitive, with gorilla-like shoulderblades and curved chimpanzee-like fingers suited to clinging and climbing trees.

The intact skull and nearly full set of teeth show the large, pointy canines that distinguish apes from early humans have disappeared, leaving only substantial chewing teeth.

The discovery, reported in the journal Nature today, has delighted scientists who say it will help unravel some of the most pressing questions about how our earliest ancestors lived.

Zeresenay Alemseged, at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, who led the study, said: "There's no other fossil as complete as this one that is older than the neanderthals. When you look at her, you can tell what she looked like. She has a face and that in my opinion is a huge addition to our understanding of what our human ancestors looked like, not only 3.3m years ago, but when they were three years old."

The discovery has already sparked debate over whether the species walked upright or swung through the trees. Some scientists argue the ape-like shoulders and hands are merely "evolutionary baggage", inherited but unused. Others believe the creature would have lost its curly fingers and gorilla-ish shoulders if it did not spend time in the trees.

Despite any debate on whether the species walked or swung through the trees, the existence of this half-human, half-ape creature would appear to end the creationist's arguments once and for all.

Not that I suppose they will give up there. They will no doubt find some tiny crack in the evolutionary theory that they will mine for all it is worth whilst failing to provide any credible alternative.

'Twas ever thus.

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Tags: Selam, 3.3 million, years, fossil, half-human, half-ape