Thu Apr 8, 2010
Researchers have found remains of two human-like creatures (hominids) in a cave near the South African capital of Johannesburg.
The two-million-year old fossils belong to a female adult and a young male — perhaps mother and son. They were discovered near Malapa in the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site.
According to the report published in the journal Science, the new species has been named Australopithecus sediba.
Scientists say the fossils belong to the period between older hominids and more modern species, or Homo, which includes our own kind.
"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,” he said.
“You're talking about a very small, very fragmentary record."
Although some scientists believe the Australopithecines are directly descended from Homo, some others argue the species can be categorized as a Homo itself.
"In fact, the authors themselves pointed to certain similarities with early Homo, seeming even to admit that the predominance of its features were with Homo, only the small cranial capacity being really an 'australopithecine' feature," Professor Colin Groves of the Australian National University said.
"But we now know of [the Indonesian 'Hobbit' species] Homo floresiensis with the cranial capacity more or less the same as the new species."
A. sediba has a mixture of archaic and modern features.
Its small teeth, projecting nose, advanced pelvis and long legs give it a modern form, while its long arms and small brain case likens it to older Australopithecine group to which Professor Berger and colleagues have assigned it, the BBC said.
The fossils were found near each other with remains of some dead animals, such as a saber-toothed cat, antelope, mice and rabbits. As none of the bodies were scavenged, researchers believe all of them died suddenly and were entombed rapidly.
"We think that there must have been some sort of calamity taking place at the time that caused all of these fossils to come down together into the cave where they got trapped and ultimately buried," said team-member Professor Paul Dirks from James Cook University in Queensland, Australia.
The team, which found the fossils with the help of the "virtual globe" software Google Earth, is currently excavating two more individuals in the same place.
Source: PressTV.
Link: http://edition.presstv.ir/detail/122805.html.
Researchers have found remains of two human-like creatures (hominids) in a cave near the South African capital of Johannesburg.
The two-million-year old fossils belong to a female adult and a young male — perhaps mother and son. They were discovered near Malapa in the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site.
According to the report published in the journal Science, the new species has been named Australopithecus sediba.
Scientists say the fossils belong to the period between older hominids and more modern species, or Homo, which includes our own kind.
"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,” he said.
“You're talking about a very small, very fragmentary record."
Although some scientists believe the Australopithecines are directly descended from Homo, some others argue the species can be categorized as a Homo itself.
"In fact, the authors themselves pointed to certain similarities with early Homo, seeming even to admit that the predominance of its features were with Homo, only the small cranial capacity being really an 'australopithecine' feature," Professor Colin Groves of the Australian National University said.
"But we now know of [the Indonesian 'Hobbit' species] Homo floresiensis with the cranial capacity more or less the same as the new species."
A. sediba has a mixture of archaic and modern features.
Its small teeth, projecting nose, advanced pelvis and long legs give it a modern form, while its long arms and small brain case likens it to older Australopithecine group to which Professor Berger and colleagues have assigned it, the BBC said.
The fossils were found near each other with remains of some dead animals, such as a saber-toothed cat, antelope, mice and rabbits. As none of the bodies were scavenged, researchers believe all of them died suddenly and were entombed rapidly.
"We think that there must have been some sort of calamity taking place at the time that caused all of these fossils to come down together into the cave where they got trapped and ultimately buried," said team-member Professor Paul Dirks from James Cook University in Queensland, Australia.
The team, which found the fossils with the help of the "virtual globe" software Google Earth, is currently excavating two more individuals in the same place.
Source: PressTV.
Link: http://edition.presstv.ir/detail/122805.html.
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