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Ancient human relatives walk like a man but climb like an ape


An international team of scientists from New York University, University of the Witwatersrand and 15 other institutions studied a lower back bone found in 2015 belonging to a woman. Australopithecus sediba, an ancient hominid.

Along with previously discovered bones of the same individual – nicknamed “Issa”, Swahili means guardian – the fossil remains form one of the most complete lower backs ever discovered. appear in the early human record and show how this relative would move around the world.

The newly studied lower back fossils are a missing link demonstrating that early hominins used their upper limbs for climbing like apes, and their lower limbs for walking, the researchers say. like human.

The fossil was first discovered in 2015 during excavations of a mining road that runs next to the Malapa site in the Cradle of Mankind World Heritage site, near Johannesburg.

They were then mostly prepared – to avoid any risk of damage – and recombined with fossils recovered during previous work on the site and found to match the vertebral column of the skeleton. fossils, part of the early specimens of Australopithecus sediba first described in 2010.

The discovery also revealed that like humans, sediba has only five lumbar vertebrae.

The first ancient fossil of Homo naledi was found in the Cradle of Mankind

“Although Issa is already one of the most complete ancient hominin skeletons ever discovered, these vertebrae actually complete the lower back and make Issa’s lumbar region a candidate not only for for the best-preserved lower back, but possibly the best, preserved,” said Professor Lee Berger, an author on the study and leader of the Malapa project.

Issa’s superb preservation has helped show that the curvature of the sediba spine is more extreme than that of any other Australopithecus species discovered – that kind of spinal curvature commonly seen in modern humans and demonstrates the ability to adapt strongly suspected of bipedalism.

“While the presence of curvature (inward curvature of the lumbar spine) and other features of the spine represent a clear adaptation to bipedal walking, there are other features, such as such as large lateral and upward processes, suggest strong muscle, perhaps for arboreal behaviors,” said Stony Brook University Professor Gabrielle Russo, another author of the study.

The arboreal behavior refers to climbing and living in trees.

Silhouette of Australopithecus sediba showing newly found vertebrae along with other skeletons of the species.

Study author Professor Thomas Cody Prang of Texas A&M University, who studies how ancient hominins walked and climbed, added: “The spine ties all of this together. “How does this combination of traits persist in our ancient ancestors, including the potential adaptability to efficiently walk on two feet and climb trees, perhaps? is one of the outstanding questions about human origin.”

The study concluded that Australopithecus sediba was a transitional form of the ancient human relative and that its spine was clearly intermediate in shape between modern humans and great apes – meaning that this species would have possessed both resembling humans and apes when moving.

Research is published Tuesday in Electronic Life magazine.

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