African fossils put new spin on human origins story

07:57, 9 September 2011

LONDON. September 9. KAZINFORM The ancient remains of two human-like creatures found in South Africa could change the way we view our origins. The 1.9-million-year-old fossils were first described in 2010, and given the species name Australopithecus sediba.

According to BBC News, but the team behind the discovery has now come back with a deeper analysis.

It tells Science magazine that features seen in the brain, feet, hands and pelvis of A. sediba all suggest this species was on the direct evolutionary line to us - Homo sapiens.

"We have examined the critical areas of anatomy that have been used consistently for identifying the uniqueness of human beings," said Professor Lee Berger from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg

"Any one of these features could have evolved separately, but it is highly unlikely that all of them would have evolved together if A. sediba was not related to our lineage," the team leader informed BBC News.

For full version go to http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14824435

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