Journal
SCIENCE
Volume 328, Issue 5975, Pages 195-204Publisher
AMER ASSOC ADVANCEMENT SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1126/science.1184944
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Funding
- South African Department of Science and Technology
- South African National Research Foundation
- Institute for Human Evolution
- Palaeontological Scientific Trust
- Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
- AfricaArray Program
- U.S. Diplomatic Mission to South Africa
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Despite a rich African Plio-Pleistocene hominin fossil record, the ancestry of Homo and its relation to earlier australopithecines remain unresolved. Here we report on two partial skeletons with an age of 1.95 to 1.78 million years. The fossils were encased in cave deposits at the Malapa site in South Africa. The skeletons were found close together and are directly associated with craniodental remains. Together they represent a new species of Australopithecus that is probably descended from Australopithecus africanus. Combined craniodental and postcranial evidence demonstrates that this new species shares more derived features with early Homo than any other australopith species and thus might help reveal the ancestor of that genus.
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