The Discovery Of The Australopithecus Sediba

Darwin once hypothesized that humans evolved from an ape like ancestor and that those ancestors most likely originated in Africa since the majority of the great apes lived there. Unfortunately, Darwin’s hypothesis was ignored for reasons such as people (e.g. Europeans) not liking of having African ancestors—not to mention the lack of evidence did not help in supporting such hypothesis. Thus, finding the missing link between apes and humans was of great important—it still is. Thankfully, through extensive research many scientists have been able to determine a clade called Hominin [7]. This clade contains humans as well as their most closely related relatives.

Three recent fossil findings believed to be hominin ancestors have been selected for description and any controversy surrounding their discovery will be discussed. The three fossils are: Homo floresiensis, Homo rudolfensis and Kenyanthropus

“How old is the oldest human fossil?,” If you had said about 700,000 years, you would probably have been right until just recently that is, “The September 1998 issue of Discover magazine”, reports that Ernesto Abbate, a geology professor from Florence, Italy, has just discovered the fossilized skull and teeth of a humanlike creature who might have lived, as far back as, one million years ago. Calling this creature Buia Man after the city in northeastern Africa where the remains were found. Prof. Abbate thinks he has discovered the earliest fossil that displays physical features associated with Homo sapiens, the species to which modern humans belong. Moreover, Buia Man says, Prof. Abbate also shows physical

Masters of the Planet is organized historically, and traces the diverse and complicated history of hominids over the past 8 million years. The book begins with the ancient origins of the hominid lineage, it outlines the rise of bipedal apes beginning with Australopithecus (including “Lucy”), the harsh life on the savannah, the multiple emergence from Africa, the spread of early "Homo" throughout the Old World continents, the misunderstood Neanderthals (our distant cousins) and finally the arrival of modern Homo sapiens.

fossils, burial sites, caves, and other sources of information. It is important to learn about

The Article Ancestors was published in August 2001 it was published by Archaeological Institute of America and was intended for anthropologists. This article informs readers that two new fossils where found in Kenya, which gives us evidence that we did not evolve from a single ancestor. This gives us new insight not only on how species evolve but more importantly where we came from. The author put pictures in the article to show the fossils and a map to show where they were found. The pictures give readers visual evidence on how the species are related to us and that we evolved from more than one species. The author also goes into detail about the skull and skeleton parts that where found. Stating where they were found, how old they are, and

Scientists have been able to discover things about our past that are almost inconceivable over 150 years ago when Charles Darwin was releasing his book, “The Origin of Species” (Gibbons, 2009a). Fossils from different australopith species have been found that lived between 4 million and 2 million years ago that show the clearer transition to human. The author, Kate Wong (2013) believes the Australopithecus sediba is the most important human ancestor discovered. Even though the discovery of Au. sediba allowed anthropologists to see human species a long time ago, there are opinions on whether it was the most important human ancestor discovered. This essay will explore how hominids have gone through many changes to get from Ardipithecus to Homo habilis and the important discoveries by scientists and what I think is the most important to the study of human origins.

This chapter starts off by explaining the evolution of the first human ancestors, which originated around seven million years ago. Historians and scientists were able to conclude that the closest living relatives of humans are the gorilla, bonobo, and the chimpanzee. All humans from the start originated and evolved in Africa. Of the many evolutionary stages of humans, Homo erectus was the first to migrate outward into other areas. Neanderthals have constantly been portrayed as unintelligent, desolate, and inconsiderate creatures, from past and present points of perspective, but evidence from archeological digs show they essentially cared for their sick and buried their dead. "The Great Leap Forward" is what Jared Diamond calls the earliest signs or evidence of uniform tools, bone tools, jewelry, and much more. This great leap was estimated to be around 50,000 years ago. Around the same period, hominids began to spread to New Guinea and Australia. As hominids adapted to their new surroundings, large animal species were wiped out because they weren’t evolved to defend themselves against hominids and other predators. The extinction of many large animal species in Eurasia occurred shortly after

In this article “A New Kind of Ancestor: Ardipithecus Unveiled”, Ann Gibbon explains the discovery of an international Scientific’s team. This finding is the oldest known human ancestor skeleton and it has 4.4 million years. The Ardipithecus ramidus is the most complete earliest hominin found until now because it has the pelvis, hands, feets and most of the skull and teeth, it is bipedal and its features show a new early hominin, but is still being similar to other species.

Our newly discovered human ancestor was unearthed about two years ago by amateur cavers, They were exploring the limestone tunnels in the rising star cave near Johannesburg, South Africa.

Appearance can be a major factor when determining what group of hominins or other ancestors remains belong to. When comparing remains from different time periods, comparing bones found can tell a lot. The lower limbs such as the foot of the creature were considered prehistoric and derived traits that were dissimilar from other hominins (Morwood, M.J., et al. 2009; Larson, S.G., et al. 2009). As other remains are compared, it has become evident that the creature from Flores, Indonesia has various traits that are both similar and different to many different hominin species. The foot is a lot longer in size in comparison to modern humans, however many of their size and stature are viewed as considerably smaller or similar to that of an Australopithecus

Australopithecus Afarensis, is the name applied to an extinct family of hominids (Primates) to have lived some 2.9-3.9 million years ago. “Lucy” an A. Afarensis fossil is considered one of the best examples of this species which are believed to have survived for some 900,000 plus years which is roughly 4 four times the duration we as humans have existed. The A. Afarensis is considered a gracile species, which means to be smaller and of a lighter build than the genus Australopithecus. It is maintained that A. Afarensis is more closely related to the genus homo then we Homo sapiens are. While A. Afarensis fossils have been found mainly in East Africa, there does exist evidence of Australopithecus Afarensis existed at sites in Hadar, Ethiopia. (More on that later).

Lastly, we come to Homo erectus which date back from 1.8 million years to about 200,000 years ago. Homo erectus has been found in Africa and Asia which makes it the first wide ranging species of its kind (Human Evolution). Despite the look of Homo erectus’s skull it was very similar body structure to that of a humans. Homo erectus is also thought to be the first hominid to use fire and have a true sence of culture (Human Evolution). Though it was probably dramatically different than what we see

To become the modern human an organism went through a series of evolutions to get to where we are now it went as ordered Sahelanthropus, Orririn, Ardipithecus, Australopithecus, Kenyanthropus and Homo. The most intriguing organisms of these evolutions our the Sahelanthropus Tchadensis which is the beginning organism of the cycle, it has a small brain and its cranial size is from 330 to 350 but archeologist couldn’t confirm the shape of its body only can assume it had a chimp like form for reasons to why they assume that it look like that was because it was the start of the hominin cycle, Australopithecus Sediba is an organism that’s around the middle of the cycle it had a small brain its cranial capacity was 420 it as well had long arms but one interesting feature a about it was that it shows features of the genus homo, Homo Erectus and Homo Sapien are the last of the hominid evolutions both of these have evolved to have human like features, they’re both capable of creating tools and exploring unknown environments but what separates all the hominin organisms from there chimpanzee ancestors is two things bipedalism which is using lower limbs to walk or run and the foramen magnum, it’s the opening in the skull where the spine column has to join

The Australopithecines were the first to walk upright, or became bipedal, although rather clumsily. Their walk was unsteady, judging by their bone structure (Figure 1.), and they most likely were quadrupedal the majority of the time. The Australopithecines had a brain about the size of an orange, high up cheekbones, and big molars. They were about three feet tall, and had small thumbs. Australopithecines, while definitely possessing some human characteristics, humans are still much closer to the chimps. Australopithecines were vegetarians; even if they knew that animals were edible, they still had no reliable means of killing animals for food. About 2 million years ago, highly evolved Australopithecines made the