Health & Science

Between apes and humans; Life without oxygen; Calling all polliwogs; A diet to remember; The Japanese advantage 

Between apes and humans

Add yet another branch to the human evolutionary tree. Scientists working in South Africa have unearthed four well-preserved skeletons, including those of a mother and her son, that date back nearly 2 million years, to a time when hominids were evolving from Australopithecus, an ape-like genus, to the more modern genus Homo. Dubbed Australopithecus sediba, the skeletons exhibit “a fascinating mosaic of features,” Smithsonian paleontologist Rick Potts, who was not part of the research team, tells The New York Times. The creatures—which apparently fell into a sinkhole and drowned—had modern legs and hips for walking upright, but long arms for climbing trees; the face and small teeth of Homo, but with small feet and a brain only about a third the size of those of humans. The hominids may be direct ancestors of humans or “a very close side branch mimicking the earliest members of Homo,” lead researcher Lee Berger says. The find was a stroke of luck. For nearly two decades, Berger had combed a nearby hill for evidence of hominids when his 9-year-old son, who’d come along on an outing, tripped over a log and shouted, “Dad, I found a fossil.”

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us