New Australopithecus sediba bones suggest extinct hominin was bipedal

The find of caller Australopithecus sediba fossils mean we tin present reconstruct astir of the spine of 1 individual, and fortify the lawsuit that the taxon was bipedal astatine slightest immoderate of the time

Life 23 November 2021

By Michael Marshall

Australopithecus sediba silhouette showing the newly-found vertebrae on with different skeletal remains. Right: Life reconstruction of Australopithecus sediba

Left: NYU & Wits University Right: Sculpture: Elisabeth Daynes / Photograph: S. Entres-sangle

Spinal bones of an extinct quality comparative person been recovered successful lumps of stone blasted retired of a South African cave and utilized to reconstruct 1 of the astir implicit backmost fossils of immoderate hominin.

The spine was curved, suggesting that Australopithecus sediba spent a batch of clip walking connected 2 legs.

A. sediba was archetypal described successful 2010 by Lee Berger astatine the University of the Witwatersrand successful Johannesburg, South Africa, and his team. They described 2 partially preserved individuals: a antheral kid called Karabo and an big female. Both were recovered successful the Malapa cave strategy and lived astir 2 cardinal years ago.

Malapa was archetypal excavated by miners astir a period ago, and immoderate of the archetypal A. sediba bones were recovered successful chunks of stone that had been blasted from the cave with dynamite.

The miners utilized immoderate of the blocks to physique a road. For the past decade, Berger’s colleagues person been chipping distant astatine these blocks. One has present yielded 4 vertebrae from the little backmost of the female, positive a bony called the sacrum that links the spine to the pelvis. The squad has named the pistillate Issa, which means “protector” successful Swahili.

The caller bones mean that astir of Issa’s little backmost has present been excavated. After fitting the vertebrae together, the squad concluded that her spine was curved truthful that, erstwhile viewed from the side, it forms a gentle S-shape, a diagnostic of humans that keeps the body’s wide centred implicit the pelvis for businesslike bipedal walking.

However, erstwhile studies of A. sediba had besides recovered wide adaptations successful the precocious assemblage for histrion climbing, suggesting it was halfway betwixt tree-dwelling apes and afloat bipedal humans.

The caller investigation backs this up, says Scott Williams astatine New York University. “It’s reinforcing what has been said before,” helium says.

Journal reference: eLife, DOI: 10.7554/eLife.70447

More connected these topics:

• fossils
• quality evolution