Images courtesy of the University of the Witwatersrand and the Institute for Human Evolution
An entirely new species of hominid, or ape-man, has been discovered in South Africa’s Cradle of Humankind world heritage site near Johannesburg. Represented by the partial fossilised skeletons of a young male and an adult female, the species has been named Australopithecus sediba. It lived almost two million years ago and, while it had long ape-like arms, was capable of striding and possibly running like a modern human.
The species was described and named by a team led by Professor Lee Berger, a palaeoanthropologist from the University of the Witwatersrand. Two papers related to the find, authored by Berger and Professor Paul Dirks of James Cooke University, were published in the journal Science on 9 April 2010.
- Click on a thumbnail for a low-resolution image, or right-click on the link below it to download a high-resolution copy of the image.
The skull of the juvenile skeleton of |
Lee Berger with the juvenile skull. |
Berger and Dr Job Kibii at Malapa, the fossil |
Berger leads the team onto the Malapa site. |
Berger’s son Mathew with the juvenile fossil. |
Paul Dirks examines the ground at the |
Berger with some of the partial remains of |
The skull of the juvenile skeleton of |
Berger and his dog Tau enter a cave at |
The Cradle of Humankind World |
Australopithecus sediba. |
Human evolutionary tree by Peter Schmid |
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