Scientific American April 2012
Book Author Mariette DiChristina
DescriptionDownload rnThe Story BeginsrnrnHumans have a seemingly primal need to understand how we came to be the way we are today. Pieces of our ancient forebears generally are hard to come by, however. Scientists working to interpret our evolution often have had to make do with studying a fossil toe bone here or a jaw there. Now, in an amazing bounty, paleoanthropologist Lee Berger and his team have uncovered two well-preserved partial skeletons of Australopithecus sediba that date from nearly two million years ago at a site near Johannesburg, South Africa; the specimens include bones from every region of the body. The bones of at least four other individuals have also been found.