Journal
SCIENCE
Volume 340, Issue 6129, Pages -Publisher
AMER ASSOC ADVANCEMENT SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1126/science.1232996
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Funding
- University of the Witwatersrand
- Ray A. Rothrock '77 Fellowship
- South African Department of Science and Technology
- Gauteng Provincial Government
- South African National Research Foundation
- African Origins Platform
- Institute for Human Origins
- National Geographic Society
- Palaeontological Scientific Trust
- Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
- Ford Foundation
- U. S. Diplomatic Mission to South Africa
- French Embassy of South Africa
- A. H. Schultz Foundation
- Duke University
- Texas AM University
- Oppenheimer family
- Ackerman family
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Two partial vertebral columns of Australopithecus sediba grant insight into aspects of early hominin spinal mobility, lumbar curvature, vertebral formula, and transitional vertebra position. Au. sediba likely possessed five non-rib-bearing lumbar vertebrae and five sacral elements, the same configuration that occurs modally in modern humans. This finding contrasts with other interpretations of early hominin regional vertebral numbers. Importantly, the transitional vertebra is distinct from and above the last rib-bearing vertebra in Au. sediba, resulting in a functionally longer lower back. This configuration, along with a strongly wedged last lumbar vertebra and other indicators of lordotic posture, would have contributed to a highly flexible spine that is derived compared with earlier members of the genus Australopithecus and similar to that of the Nariokotome Homo erectus skeleton.
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