New discovery of Au fossils. Sediba

In recent days, new discoveries about a prehistoric skeleton have caused the scientific community to wave the controversy over the origins of humanity and open up the possibility of re-examining or redrawing the evolutionary map. The human species that we know is learned in ancient times.

On Friday, a group of international researchers published the latest discoveries about Australopithecus Sediba - a unique prehistoric species that lived nearly 2 million years ago. Led by Lee Berger - an anthropologist from the University of Witwatersrand, in Johannesburg, South Africa, the team revealed new insights into how Au people. Sediba walks, chewing and moving, thereby reinforcing Berger's judgment that this is the direct ancestor of humans.

Previously, anthropologists had identified Homo Habilis as the closest ancestor to Homo Erectus - the forerunner of modern humans. However, Berger's research showed another strain. Au. Sediba appeared before Homo Habilis, estimated at nearly 100,000 years, and the monkey and human blending features hinted at another evolution from the modern Homo-like Hominin ancestors.

A six-page report published in Science has initially made this theory. Accordingly, a study on the tooth structure of Au. Sediba shows that while some species share similarities with Homo breeds, they are different from Au. Afarensis - a class of East African Hominins including Lucy - the name given to a famous prehistoric skeleton discovered in 1974.

Lucy has been widely accepted as the most popular ancestor of humans compared to all other prehistoric species. However, Berger said the Lucy theory now became "very unreliable". Instead, he pointed out that Au. Sediba represents a "mysterious lineage" , completely separate from Lucy and his contemporaries of East Africa.

Other studies of the group revealed similar mosaic properties in bone, rib cage and especially the jaw bone of Au. Sediba - a surprisingly similar trait of human structure today and distinctly different from the Au gibbon fossils. Afarensis is found in the same area. In addition, the arm bone of Au. Sediba shows the ideal traits for climbing, but the fossil bone fossils show how to move straight with two legs.

Composite reconstructed model of Au people.Sediba (middle) compared to the skeleton of an adult woman Homo Sapiens (left) and a Pan Troglodytes man (right).

Darryl de Ruiter - a professor from Texas A&M University and co-author of the article said: "Everywhere when we look at the skeleton, from the jaw to the foot, we recognize the evidence of the transition from Australopith to Homo, We have realized the trail of evolution! "

"Au. Sediba looks more like Homo than any other Australopith species ever known and this is the typical reason that Au. Sediba is the ancestor of Homo breeds , " Ruiter explained.

Published on Friday is the result after more than 4 years of research on Au people. Sediba, which marks one of the most comprehensive studies of prehistoric species ever made. Au. Sediba was first discovered in 2008 when Berger's 9-year-old son accidentally stumbled upon a fossil clavicle near Malapa cave, South Africa. Berger later found many other bone samples belonging to this species, including the bones of a young boy and a skeleton of an adult woman.

A follow-up study based on collected specimens has yielded puzzling results. Typically like a hand, while the long fingers of the fingers are ideal for climbing trees, the thumb is also unusually long, indicating Au. Sediba can often handle tools. When standing, Au. Sediba is about 1.2m tall and Au's brain. Sediba is small like a monkey instead of a human-like shape and organization.

De Ruiter acknowledged that these findings still leave much to be clarified, partly because fossil reports are still incomplete. Even so, he asserted the found evidence suggesting "we are looking for an ancestor of Homo-like, or at least a close relative of this aquatic species".

However, the announcement also encountered many objections from the scientific community. Some people have argued that Au. Sediba was "too young" to be a direct ancestor of the Homo breed and the argument they gave was that some Homo Habilis fossils date to more than 2.3 million years. Berger and his team have rejected this estimate and argue that Homo Habilis existed only 1.9 million years ago, the older fossils were too discrete to be evidence. In addition, Berger's team emphasized that they only found part of the fossil of Au. Sediba in South Africa and still many older fossils have not been unearthed.

Berger said: "We are making an unprecedented search for a prehistoric human prehistoric Hominin in a famously fragmented and fragmented area. So we are preparing for a newspaper. report better than the last time. "

If successful in proving Au. Sediba is the Homo ancestor, Berger will stand a great opportunity to redraw the human evolution map or at least discover a new direction of evolution.

"This leaves us with a big question , " he said. "Although we know the laws of human evolution, Sediba appears alone and says - This is another option!".