New great grandmother? Science reports the discovery of an important link in human evolution

Australopithecus sediba is a species that is halfway between Australopithecus - and the genus Homo whose members are already human

Our story begins about 50 million years ago, in clay layers in Germany a fossil the size of a house cat was discovered.

The paleontologists claim that it is the ancestor of the primate series, the fossil that was discovered was almost complete (95%) and is considered one of the most impressive discoveries. The name Ida was given after the home of the enthusiast who found it.

The name primates, which means "the first on top" was given by the zoologist Carolus Linnaeus (half of the 18th century) who arranged the tree of life in the shape of a cypress, where at the top resides the human who is considered the "crown of creation" and all the others are arranged below him. (It should be noted that even today the sorting method is based on the work of Linnaeus) After the publication of "The Origin of Species" by Darwin (1859) the condescending attitude changed, today the tree is drawn more like a multi-branched tree (oak?) that does not have "firsts" or teeth, etc. ', but the name remains (and there are also those who still think of themselves as the tiara of creation).

The next step in our story is the appearance of monkeys, in the desert sands near Fayum (Egypt) a fossil was found that is about 35 million years old, it resembles the baboon in shape and is called Aegypto-Pythcus - an Egyptian monkey, Aegypto-Pythcus is associated with the sub-series from which the African monkeys developed and later about 18 million years ago The ape branch branched off from them, to which belong the gorillas, the chimpanzees, (in Africa) the orang-utang, the gibbons and the siamang (in Asia).

Today, hominin "super apes" which include all the "great apes" and their ancestors, hereinafter hominin, are classified and separated from the human line hominids which includes all the species called homo.

About 15 million years ago, one of the families split, from one branch the chimpanzees grew and from another branch grew several species that over time gave birth to the Australopithecus (the southern ape). Many species of Australopithecus lived in Africa but the most famous is Lucy, the fossilized skeleton of a female Australopithecus about 3 million years old was discovered in the Afar Desert (Ethiopia) and therefore the species is called Australopithecus-afarensis.

The researchers working in the field had an old record player and one record - "Lucy in the sky" - by the Beatles which they played all night and hence the (private) name, according to the skeleton Lucy was the size of a chimpanzee and could walk upright! Even before Lucy's discovery, fossils of two species were discovered: one, Homo erectus - the erect human that existed about 1.6 million years ago and was the first to leave Africa, meaning that fossils of Homo erectus were found outside of Africa - mainly in Asia.

At about the same time, another species lived that received the name Homo habilis - the skillful human (hereafter the skillful), a name given to him by J. Lewis and Mary Leakey who discovered his remains in the 60s. Stone tools were found next to the Homo habilis fossils, Lewis Leakey argued that Australopithecus could not have made tools and therefore classified the fossil findings as a different type... Homo (human).

That is, the skillful and upright were two species that were the first in the genus Homo, the accepted assumption is that modern man is a descendant of Homo-erectus (hereafter upright). So far things are acceptable although there is an alarming lack of fossils.

The problem begins when you try to continue because about 200 thousand years ago a new species Homo sapiens appears on the fossil stage that leaves Africa in waves and "conquers" most of the world, Homo sapiens has about two and maybe three subspecies that over the last tens of thousands of years disappear or assimilate into the homo species - Spines-Spines (the thinking man?),

One of the missing links in the story is the link that connects the "upright" and the "skilled" modern man to homo-spins (hereafter HS). About three years ago, a father and his son (9 years old) went to look for fossils in a cave whose roof had collapsed, the area around the cave not far from Johannesburg is known for the wealth of paleontological finds in it, the father, a well-known paleontologist named Lee Berger, helped his son in the search for various finds, after a little digging the boy pulled out ( Mateos) a clavicle that looked human.

Following the discovery, a team arrived at the scene and found 220 bones that were associated with 5 individuals. After identification, it became clear to the researchers that they had a new species that was given the name Australopithecus-Sediba (hereafter AS) A. sediba. .

After sorting, the researchers were able to assemble two almost complete skeletons, one of a woman (adult), and one of a child (about 12 years old).

After the "puzzle" work was completed, with the researchers having in their hands almost complete skulls and skeletons with a few parts missing, investigations and tests began, the results of which are now published in science.

The age of the bones / skeletons has been recorded at least two million years, that is, a little more than the age of the upright and skillful, very close to the time when the hominid lineage appears. Most aspects of A.S. Showing a strange mixture of humanity and primal formations? Aspects that led the researchers to hypothesize that we have an intermediate form between Australopithecus and Homo.

The structure of the feet was adapted to both walking (on two feet) and climbing, a structure that is not seen in other species, a structure so different that researchers said that if they had not been found together with the rest of the skeleton, it would be possible to think that they belonged to another species, the joints are human, as well as the arch and Achilles tendon, but the heel and calf... monkeys A special structure given to A.S. Energetic advantage in walking and running in the savannas.

The pelvis is similar to the pelvis of a Homo sapiens woman, a wide pelvis that is adapted to the birth of a newborn with a large head. A similarity because of which the researchers suggest that the pelvis developed into its shape and grew not only to allow a large head to pass through the birth canal, but more so to allow upright walking, since babies of A.S. were small-headed.

The palms bear a surprising resemblance to the palms of H.S. Suitable for a strong grasp and grip, for production and working with tools! That is, both to climb like a monkey and to process and work like a gay, hands that were adapted to processing tools more than the hands of the skilled.

The brain (which is sometimes considered to be what separates the human being from other animals) ... is small, its volume is about 450 (grapefruit), but it looks human in several ways: the frontal lobe (behind the eyes) was equal in shape to the frontal lobe of the HS, to the frontal lobe is attributed the The higher mental capacity, the capacity to perform many tasks at the same time, the ability to plan for the future, the ability to invent, that is, with the exception of the size, AS had a brain similar to the brain of HS!

Although no tools were found near the fossils, the researchers claim that according to the mind and hands of the A.S. He was able to make complex tools and use them skillfully.

The researchers say that the beginning of human abilities can be seen developing in the A.S. Which casts doubt on the accepted assumption that "gradually the brain developed grew larger and became more complicated from Australopithecus to Homo", it is possible that the brain of Australopithecus grew gradually and at a certain point "exploded" and grew to the size of Homo very quickly.

Despite all the human formations, the researchers associate the A.S. To a humanin and not to a hominid?

This is because there are researchers who claim that the A.S. It could have developed as a separate species and developed formations and abilities similar to homosexuals, but over the generations it became extinct and disappeared. Others claim that Sediva should be classified as gay! The South African paleontologists who continue to work on the site are hoping for more findings and prefer to treat Sadiba as if she were our great grandmother.