A New fascinating discovery is found! Bones and possibly 2 million year old skin from our ancient ancestors the Australopithecus sediba were discovered in the Malapa region of South Africa in 2008 and now described for the first time last april.
After scientists researched the sedibas anatomy they believe that sedibas could have been capable to make tools and use them. Also they may have found the fossilized skin which will mark the only discovery of soft tissue ever found.
The people involved in this discovery is the study leader Lee Berger an anthropologist at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, Scott Simpson a paleontologist at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, and a team of researchers.
The scientists have found that the fossilized skin and bones belong to a Male and Female Sediba both about 30 years old. Very interestingly the scientists also were able to discover that the pair died about at the same time. Possibly days or hours apart.
This pair had fallen into a chasm ( a natural death trap) and rested upon a underground cave. This underground death trap had killed many more animals and were littered with tons of bones. Over time these bones were covered with a thick cement stone material also known as breccia that help preserve these bones just for the researchers to find.
After studying these bones the researchers were able to find that the Sediba had many human features. The Sediba was in fact able to stand up right much like a human. The ankles were very human like but the heels were more apelike.
One very interesting fact that i had read was that "With every heartbeat, the brain pounds out its shape on the developing skull of a child, eventually leaving a beautiful impression of the external shape and form of the brain on the inside of the skull," study co-author Kristian Carlson, also from the University of Witwatersrand, explained in a statement.
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