Journal
SCIENCE
Volume 340, Issue 6129, Pages -Publisher
AMER ASSOC ADVANCEMENT SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1126/science.1234598
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Funding
- South African Department of Science and Technology
- African Origins Platform (AOP)
- South African National Research Foundation
- Institute for Human Evolution
- University of the Witwatersrand
- University of the Witwatersrand's Vice Chancellor's Discretionary Fund
- 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 and Ackerman families
- University of the Witwatersrand's Schools of Geosciences and Anatomical Sciences
- Bernard Price Institute for Palaeontology
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The shape of the thorax of early hominins has been a point of contention for more than 30 years. Owing to the generally fragmentary nature of fossil hominin ribs, few specimens have been recovered that have rib remains complete enough to allow accurate reassembly of thoracic shape, thus leaving open the question of when the cylindrical-shaped chest of humans and their immediate ancestors evolved. The ribs of Australopithecus sediba exhibit a mediolaterally narrow, ape-like upper thoracic shape, which is unlike the broad upper thorax of Homo that has been related to the locomotor pattern of endurance walking and running. The lower thorax, however, appears less laterally flared than that of apes and more closely approximates the morphology found in humans.
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