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WASHINGTON — Researchers claim to have uncovered a new species of human that lived 2 million year ago after studying fossils found in Kenya. A famous paleontology family has found the bones that they think confirm a theory that there are two additional pre-human species besides the one that eventually led to modern humans.

A team led by Meave Leakey, daughter-in-law of famed scientist Louis Leakey, found facial bones from one creature and jawbones from two others in Kenya. That led the researchers to conclude that man’s early ancestor had plenty of human-like company from other species.

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These would not be Homo erectus, believed to be our direct ancestor. They would be more like very distant cousins, who when you go back even longer in time, shared an ancient common ancestor, one scientist said.

But other experts in human evolution are not convinced by what they say is a leap to large conclusions based on limited evidence. It is the continuation of a long-running squabble in anthropology about the earliest members of our own genus, or class, called Homo —an increasingly messy family history. And much of it stems from a controversial discovery that the Leakeys made 40 years ago.