Posted on 07/13/2012 5:18:56 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
The remains of a juvenile hominid skeleton, of the newly identified Australopithecus (southern ape) sediba species, are the "most complete early human ancestor skeleton ever discovered," according to Lee Berger, a paleontologist from the University of Witwatersrand.
"We have discovered parts of a jaw and critical aspects of the body including what appear to be a complete femur (thigh bone), ribs, vertebrae and other important limb elements, some never before seen in such completeness in the human fossil record," said Prof Berger.
The latest discovery was made in a one-metre-wide rock that lay unnoticed for years in a laboratory until a technician incidentally saw a tooth sticking out of the black stone last month.
It was then scanned to reveal significant parts of A. sediba, whose other parts were discovered in 2009 in the world-famous Cradle of Humankind north of Johannesburg.
It is not certain whether the species, which had long arms, a small brain and a thumb, was a direct ancestor of humans' genus, Homo, or simply a close relative.
"It appears that we now have some of the most critical and complete remains of the skeleton," said Berger.
Other team members were equally enthusiastic.
"It's like putting together the pieces of a puzzle," university laboratory manager Bonita De Klerk said.
The skeleton is thought to be around two million years old and would have been aged between nine and 13 years when the upright-walking tree climber died.
De Klerk said: "It was in packing this (stone) up in the vehicle to go and be scanned that one of our technicians actually noticed a tooth sticking out on the surface and he called Lee over and said, 'Oh, I think this is a hominid tooth', and he was right."
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
(L) The skull of MH1, a juvenile male Australopithecus Sediba and paleontologist Professor Lee Burger (R) poses with the highly intact remains of 'Karabo,' a young speciman of Australopithecus sebida Photo: AFP/AP
Shoulda flossed...
Jeez, enormous eye sockets!
Makes you wonder what other treasures are lying around in museums undiscovered.
OH GREAT!!! Another Democrat voter? Where do they dig these guys up????
pieced together from fragments found miles apart and others “recreated” to fit the scenario....
usual Darwinian evolutionary crock.
Looks like a monkey or ape skull to me.
The professor looks like our man Rush.
Now that’s funny right there.
,,,,,,, if 0bama had a son ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
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GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach | |
Thanks Renfield, and have a safe one. |
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It wasn’t “pieced together from fragments found miles apart” and nothing was “recreated” — IOW, your remark was the usual anti-scientific crock.
The ship that brought my great grandfather from Europe is full of dinosaur bones at the bottom of the Atlantic where it was sunk by the Germans in 1916.
Apparently there is some interest in possibly recovering some of the cargo.
The Kaiser, bless him, was always against dinosaur bone smuggling. Let us hope that your great-grandfather has seen the error of his ways.
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