Australopithecus sediba: a new species of Homo-like australopith from South Africa. Academic Article

abstract

• Despite a rich African Plio-Pleistocene hominin fossil record, the ancestry of Homo and its relation to earlier australopithecines remain unresolved. Here we report on two partial skeletons with an age of 1.95 to 1.78 million years. The fossils were encased in cave deposits at the Malapa site in South Africa. The skeletons were found close together and are directly associated with craniodental remains. Together they represent a new species of Australopithecus that is probably descended from Australopithecus africanus. Combined craniodental and postcranial evidence demonstrates that this new species shares more derived features with early Homo than any other australopith species and thus might help reveal the ancestor of that genus.

authors

• de Ruiter, Darryl

published proceedings

• Science

altmetric score

• 329.878

author list (cited authors)

• Berger, L. R., de Ruiter, D. J., Churchill, S. E., Schmid, P., Carlson, K. J., Dirks, P., & Kibii, J. M.

citation count

• 407

complete list of authors

• Berger, Lee R||de Ruiter, Darryl J||Churchill, Steven E||Schmid, Peter||Carlson, Kristian J||Dirks, Paul HGM||Kibii, Job M

publication date

• April 2010

publisher

• American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)  Publisher

published in

• Science  Journal

keywords

• Animals
• Biological Evolution
• Body Size
• Bone And Bones
• Dentition
• Female
• Fossils
• Hominidae
• Male
• Mandible
• Skeleton
• Skull
• South Africa

PubMed Central ID

• 20378811

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

• 10.1126/science.1184944

start page

• 195

end page

• 204

volume

• 328

issue

• 5975

URL

• http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1184944