Australopithecus sediba : A new hominin fossil discovery
Skeletal remains found by an international team, in a cave about 30 miles northwest of Johannesburg South African cave may yield new clues to human development and answer key questions of the evolution of the human lineage. The team consisting of members from U.S., African, European and Australian universities, named the new species, Australopithecus sediba, in April 2010. They found skeletal remains in a cave of many individuals of Australopithecus sediba possibly belonging to a family group. They all seemed to have died suddenly in the same event about 1.9 million years ago, but the remains are in surprisingly good shape. The important aspect of these hominid fossils that show both human-like and ape-like characteristics and appear to be a transitional form of Australopithecus, intermediate between earlier australopiths and later Homo, the genus to which present-day humans belong.
The detail analysis of these fossil remains was published in recent issue of science journal. Australopithecus sediba also belongs to the same genus to which famous fossil LUCY Australopithecus afarensis belongs.
Australopithecus is a genus of hominins now extinct. Ape-like in structure, yet walking bipedally similar to modern humans, they are believed to have played a significant role in human evolution, and it is generally held among anthropologists that a form of Australopithecus eventually evolved into Homo.
The skulls are small, which is what you might expect, but their morphology shows it housed a brain shaped much like a human’s,” he notes. “The pelvis and foot are also similar in that regard. The foot, for example, shows an ankle that looks like human-like, but the heel is shaped more like that of an ape. But again, all of the remains appear to represent an evolutionary intermediary between Australopithecus and humans.
Reference :
9 September 2011 vol 333, issue 6048, Science
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