Pictures: New Human Ancestor Fossils Found

nationalgeographic ^ | April 8, 2010

[JoeProBono]

Remarkably well preserved for a two-million-year-old fossil, this child's skull belongs to Australopithecus sediba, a previously unknown species of ape-like creature that may have been a direct ancestor of modern humans, according to a new study in Science.

Scientists think this particular Australopithecus sediba fossil is from a male between 8 and 13 years old. The child's fossils were found in the remnants of a subterranean South African cave system alongside the fossil remains of an adult female in her 30s.

"It's the opinion of my colleagues and I that [A. sediba] may very well be the Rosetta stone that unlocks our understanding of the genus Homo," the biological group that includes humans, study leader Lee Berger, of the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, said in a statement, referring to the artifact that helped decipher ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics.

A. sediba could help anthropologists understand, to a greater degree than any human-ancestor species discovered so far, the transition from late australopithecines—the apelike group of species that came before the first Homo species—to the first direct ancestors of humans, Berger added.

[JoeProBono]

Australopithecus Sediba Child's Fossil

Human-Like Face for A. Sediba?

A frontal view of the A. sediba child skull suggests the new human-ancestor species had some surprisingly human-like features. It's face, for example, is flatter than other known australopithecines. Also, A. sediba had small teeth and a surprisingly human-like, as opposed to chimpanzee-like, nose.

Australopithecus Sediba's World

A. sediba lived in a patchwork of grasslands and woods in what's now South Africa. The generally flat landscape was broken up by small hills and cliffs, some of which contained caves like the one pictured above, which is close to the fossil-discovery site.

[martin_fierro]

?

[Raymann]

I don’t get it, what’s your point?

[Bryanw92]

Now we know why Goofy walks erect and talks while Pluto is just a dog!

[DallasDeb]

LOL! You guys crack me up!

[missnry]

Tell them to hold the presses on spreading the word. The fossils look like modern day Democrats to me.

[r9etb]

How many times have we heard this same song before?

[Adder]

Needs braces...

[JoeProBono]

[SunkenCiv]

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[bunkerhill7]

Pictures: New Human Ancestor Fossils of Obummer Found in Kenya
nationalgeographic ^ | April 8, 2010

Posted on 4/9/10 2:38:53 PM by JoeProBono

A remarkably well preserved empty brain case for a two-million-year-old fossil, this megalomaniac skull belongs to Obummeraca comunistata seditionata, a previously unknown species of ape-like creature that may have been a direct ancestor of modern despots, according to a new study in Science.

Scientists think this particular Obummeraca comunistata seditionata fossil is from a male between 35 and 49 years old. The deformed ugly fossils were found in the remnants of a subterranean South Chicago cave system alongside the color-clashing fossil remains of an adult female in her 40s.

“It’s the opinion of my colleagues and I that O.C.S., [Obummeraca comunistata seditionata] may very well be the gall stone that unlocks our understanding of this idiot Homo,” the biological group that includes deviant humans, study leader Lee Berger, of the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, said in a statement, referring to the artifact that helped decipher ancient Kenyan gas station restroom graffiti.

[magslinger]

In before the picture of Helen Thomas?

[Little Bill]

A does not equal B .

[JoeProBono]

[JoeProBono]

Lee R. Berger, an American paleoanthropologist, with son Matthew and dog Tau, at the at the Malapa site where they discovered the new hominid species.

[cake_crumb]

First we had Lucy, the first Australopithecus. The sum total of recovered bones from Lucy is 33. 5 are from the area of the head. The record regarding Australopithecus is sparse. While I would not hesitate to agree that this is an Australopithicus fossil, based on later reconstructions based on an amalgamation of other fragments found over the decades, I find it hard to see any reason to believe this fossil represents a whole new species. There's just too little solid data.

Really nice specimen though.

[JoeProBono]

CRADLE OF HUMANKIND, South Africa — Nine-year-old Matthew Berger dashed after his dog, Tau, into the high grass here one sunny morning, tripped over a log and stumbled onto a major archaeological discovery. Scientists announced Thursday that he had found the bones of a new hominid species that lived almost two million years ago during the fateful, still mysterious period spanning the emergence of the human family.
“Dad, I found a fossil!” Matthew said he cried out to his father, Lee R. Berger, an American paleoanthropologist, who had been searching for hominid bones just a hill and a half away for almost two decades. Fossil hunters have profitably scoured these rolling grasslands north of Johannesburg since the 1930s.

Matthew held the ancient remains of a 4-foot-2 boy who had been just a few years older than Matthew himself. Dr. Berger, with the Institute for Human Evolution at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, and his fellow researchers have since found much more of the boy’s skeleton, including his extraordinarily well-preserved skull, and three other individuals. South Africa’s children will compete to name the boy.

In a report being published Friday in the journal Science, Dr. Berger, 44, and a team of scientists said the fossils from the boy and a woman were a surprising and distinctive mixture of primitive and advanced anatomy and thus qualified as a new species of hominid, the ancestors and other close relatives of humans. It has been named Australopithecus sediba.

The species sediba, which means fountain or wellspring in Sotho, strode upright on long legs, with human-shaped hips and pelvis, but still climbed through trees on apelike arms. It had the small teeth and more modern face of Homo, the genus that includes modern humans, but the relatively primitive feet and “tiny brain” of Australopithecus, Dr. Berger said.

Geologists estimated that the individuals lived 1.78 million to 1.95 million years ago, probably closer to the older date, when australopithecines and early species of Homo were contemporaries.

[Red_Devil 232]

Looks like the dog got tired of digging!

[cake_crumb]

I MEANT to post that original post to you...Martin...you defy description sometimes.

[Texas4ever]

looks like a gonga line!