Australopithecine Stakes a Claim as Humanity's Earliest Ancestor
Not so fast, Homo habilis. The australopithecine currently viewed as one of the earliest human ancestors may have just been pushed to the evolutionary backseat. A new analysis of another australopithecine, Australopithecus sediba, has revealed that sediba is not only the most human-like australopithecine found to date, but that it's so similar it might just be the ancestor from which early humans evolved. Australopithecus sediba fossils were first located in 2008 in South Africa, but they were identified as having come too late in the fossil record to have pre-dated the Homo line from whence modern humans came. But a series of five papers appearing in tomorrow's edition of the journal Science reveal loads of new analysis on sediba, including the fact that it did in fact predate Homo erectus and also that important elements of its anatomy are remarkably similar to those of modern humans. Related ArticlesBigger Brains in Human AncestorsFirst...