Remains of human ancestor may solve evolution mystery
The remains of what appears to be the earliest human ancestor have been dated at almost two million years old and may unlock some of the mysteries of human evolution.
Scientists have announced that a startling mix of human and primitive traits found in the various body parts of an extinct species make it a strong contender for being the immediate ancestor to the human lineage, Science journal reports.
Fossils of the extinct hominid known as Australopithecus sediba were reportedly discovered by the nine-year-old son of a scientist in a South African cave in 2008.
Australopithecus means "southern ape” and many unlock the secrets to human evolution, potentially rewriting the theories on our ancestry, scientists claim.
A detailed analysis of Australopithecus sediba’s hands, feet, skull and pelvis has offered an "unprecedented" access to humans’ family history, and the remains have striking resemblance to both ancient apes and members of our own species, homo sapiens.
The "really extraordinary material" has now been dated at 1.977 million years old, and the results can be shared with the rest of world.
"The fossils demonstrate a surprisingly advanced but small brain, a very evolved hand with a long thumb like a human's, a very modern pelvis, but a foot and ankle shape never seen in any hominin species that combines features of both apes and humans in one anatomical package," researcher Lee Bergerof University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, told the journal.
The National Geographic reports that the A. sediba skeletons belong to a male child in his early teens and a female thought to be roughly 30 years old.
The pair likely died within days or perhaps even hours of each other and may have been related.
These new findings put the long-standing theory of brains gradually developing in doubt and corroborate the idea that while Australopithecus brains did increase in complexity gradually, becoming more like Homo, they later increased in size relatively quickly.
