skunk
04-08-2010, 06:39 PM
South African fossils could be new hominid species (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8609192.stm)
I don't believe this was posted yet. I know we've had quite a few new human threads, although I think this is actually another one.
Woman X was in Siberia, this find is in South Africa.
Scientists are calling this new species "Australopithecus sediba" (http://www.sciencemag.org/extra/sediba/).
The remarkable remains of two ancient human-like creatures (hominids) have been found in South Africa.
The fossils of a female adult and a juvenile male - perhaps mother and son - are just under two million years old.
They were uncovered in cave deposits at Malapa not far from Johannesburg.
Researchers tell the journal Science that the creatures fill an important gap between older hominids and the group of more modern species known as Homo, which includes our own kind.
The team has assigned the name Australopithecus sediba to their finds.
"It's at the point where we transition from an ape that walks on two legs to, effectively, us," lead scientist Professor Lee Berger of the University of the Witwatersrand told BBC News.
"I think that probably everyone is aware that this period of time - that period between 1.8 and just over two million years [ago] - is one of the most poorly represented in the entire early hominid fossil record. You're talking about a very small, very fragmentary record," he explained.
Rapid burial
Many scientists regard the Australopithecines as being directly ancestral to Homo but the precise placement of A. sediba in the human family tree is already proving controversial, with some scientists arguing the species may well be a Homo itself.
The Malapa creatures lived right on the cusp of the emergence of Homo species. Indeed, there are some fossils from East Africa thought to be Homo that are slightly older than the new specimens.
A. sediba has a fascinating mix of features - some archaic, some modern.
Its small teeth, projecting nose, very advanced pelvis, and long legs throw forward to more modern forms. And yet its very long arms and small brain case might echo the much older Australopithecine group to which Professor Berger and colleagues have assigned it.
The Malapa fossils were unearthed in the famous Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site, which has yielded many fine fossils down the years.
They were pulled from a pit - what is left of a cave complex that has lost its roof through erosion over time.
Continued at source.
I don't believe this was posted yet. I know we've had quite a few new human threads, although I think this is actually another one.
Woman X was in Siberia, this find is in South Africa.
Scientists are calling this new species "Australopithecus sediba" (http://www.sciencemag.org/extra/sediba/).
The remarkable remains of two ancient human-like creatures (hominids) have been found in South Africa.
The fossils of a female adult and a juvenile male - perhaps mother and son - are just under two million years old.
They were uncovered in cave deposits at Malapa not far from Johannesburg.
Researchers tell the journal Science that the creatures fill an important gap between older hominids and the group of more modern species known as Homo, which includes our own kind.
The team has assigned the name Australopithecus sediba to their finds.
"It's at the point where we transition from an ape that walks on two legs to, effectively, us," lead scientist Professor Lee Berger of the University of the Witwatersrand told BBC News.
"I think that probably everyone is aware that this period of time - that period between 1.8 and just over two million years [ago] - is one of the most poorly represented in the entire early hominid fossil record. You're talking about a very small, very fragmentary record," he explained.
Rapid burial
Many scientists regard the Australopithecines as being directly ancestral to Homo but the precise placement of A. sediba in the human family tree is already proving controversial, with some scientists arguing the species may well be a Homo itself.
The Malapa creatures lived right on the cusp of the emergence of Homo species. Indeed, there are some fossils from East Africa thought to be Homo that are slightly older than the new specimens.
A. sediba has a fascinating mix of features - some archaic, some modern.
Its small teeth, projecting nose, very advanced pelvis, and long legs throw forward to more modern forms. And yet its very long arms and small brain case might echo the much older Australopithecine group to which Professor Berger and colleagues have assigned it.
The Malapa fossils were unearthed in the famous Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site, which has yielded many fine fossils down the years.
They were pulled from a pit - what is left of a cave complex that has lost its roof through erosion over time.
Continued at source.