3 myo old human ancestor fossil sent to Oxford for study

 The Malaysian media recently produced a few reports on how Perak Man has "been given a face" by 3D scanning. The human skeleton is roughly 10-11,000 years old. See my blog.

Then on 2 March 2021, BBC had an interesting report "Human origins: 'Little Foot' fossil's big journey out of Africa". It describes how the the of "Little Foot", the most complete Australopithecine fossil ever recovered, was sent to Oxford, UK, 2 years ago, for high resolution X ray scanning.

It took some 20 years to excavate Little Foot's bones from the Sterkfontein Caves just outside Johannesburg. The bones are thought to be more around 3.6 million years old. 

So far just the skull has been scanned.

See BBC report. 

The bones were sent to the Diamond Light Source in Oxford. And coincidentally after the BBC report, Diamond had a virtual tour on 13 March. This was really interesting, lasting over 2 years and was very detailed and informative. They even mentioned they had worked on Little Foot. See the virtual tour page.

The Two Million Year Old Boy from South Africa

New : The Two Million Year Old Boy          [Natgeotv 2011]

A 2 myo clavicle bone belonging to a pre-human boy from a previously unidentified species: Australopithecus sediba.

This was the discovery of the century, finding a new species.

On 15 Aug 2008 Lee Berger and his son were looking for fossils in the World Heritage site 25 miles from Johannesburg. It is known as Cradle of Humankind, because of the pre-human fossils. Many years ago the area was mined by gold prospectors and many caves and rocks were blown up. In a small depression in the Malapa Valley, Lee's son found a hominid clavicle in a rock, and later the lower jaw and a canine tooth. They were from a male child dated 2 myo.

6 myo humans and chimps shared a common ancestor. Australopithecus started walking on 2 legs. But it is not known when Homo appeared as there is a gap in the fossil record, between 2.5 - 1.8 mya. Very few bones of pre-humans have been found, only about 3000.

100s of bone fragments were found in blasted rocks, from animals such as sabre tooth cats, hyena, antelope, mice, rabbits etc. More finds were made, a humerus, scapula and 2 teeth. These were from a second individual. This was an adult female about 30 years of age. Could this be a mother and child? They were 2 hominid pre-humans and named as Australopithecus sediba. They had a mix of modern and old features.

Before this discovery, less than 10 hominid skeletons had been found. The new bones were very different from anything found before. A scan of rocks revealed a skull inside on. This was from an entirely new species as it didn't match anything known.

A lab was set up to make casts of the bones which would be available to researchers all over the world.

Human evolution has not occurred in a straight line as there are many branches and Australopithecus sediba contains old and new features. This new species had an ankle like a human with an ape-like heel bone. It had modern hands with ape-like arms, so could walk upright but still climb trees if necessary. It had a very small brain but it was reshaped to look more human than ape.

It is not known if Australopithecus sediba is a direct ancestor to Homo sapiens.

There was a clue as to how these hominids died - bones from both individuals were unmarked by predators. There were no tooth or impact marks. The bones were well preserved in limestone. Many hominids died violent deaths e.g by animal attacks. So how did these ones die? The boy had 2 broken bones on the forearm so could he have fallen. Today the cave is just a hole in the ground, maybe it was deeper before. Maybe the hominids were searching for water and fell down. Animal bones were also found. There could have been a flash flood which buried all the bones together. But the site was disturbed by the gold miners centuries ago.

Excavation of the site began. The tibia of a 3rd individual was found, a 2nd adult. Then some from an infant about 18 months old. Possibly a family group.

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Shown on UK Channel 4 TV in Sept 2015

See also the related programme, FIRST HUMANS: THE CAVE DISCOVERY , on the discovery of
Homo naledi from Rising Star Cave.
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Homo naledi, a new species of human ancestor from South Africa

Homo naledi, a new species of human ancestor, found in South Africa.

Documentary by Quickfire Media 2015

FIRST HUMANS: THE CAVE DISCOVERY

In Autumn 2013, 2 cavers Rick and Steve found a new previously unentered chamber deep in Rising Star Cave near Johananesburg in South Africa. Lee Berger, a professor of palaentology at Witwatersrand University lead the research which revealed the bones were from early hominids.

There was a gap between known specimens of Australopithecus and Homo erectus, 2-3 million years ago. Australopithecus was an upright ape, with a smaller body and brain than Homo erectus which was more human like.

Lee Berger called for skinny scientists who could negotiate the narrow passages to the new chamber. Cams were set up throughout the cave, using more than 2 km of cable. The position of the bones was mapped by laser scanning.

In 2008 Lee Berger had investigated the nearby Malapa Valley. On 1 Aug 2008 his son had found a hominid clavicle in a rock at a small cave/hole in the ground. It was well preserved in the limestone layers and dated to 1.97 myo. It turned out to be a new species,  Australopithecus sediba. This discovery ended the gap between Australopithecus and Homo erectus. The bones were found to be from a female and a child. A complete skeleton was made by scanning and 3d printing. Tartar found on the teeth was tested and showed microscopic remains of many different plants such as grasses, wood bark and fruits. This indicates a diet similar to today's chimpanzees. It suggests that ape-like forest dwellers evolved into humans.

Back at Rising Star, the hip bones showed an upright but primitive gait. The jaws are more Homo-like. A piece of skull was definitely Homo and of a new species. Careful collection of the bones resulted in more than 2000 fragments from 12 individuals. This is the first new species between Australopithecus and Homo erectus to be found in abundance. The bones showed human-like feet, hands and teeth, which means they interacted with the environment. But the trunk and brain was more primitive, with chimp-like arms, long legs and a small brow. The tiny brain was only one third the size of a human bone. The legs and hands are part of our genus. But they are still close to Australopithecus.

There were no other animal remains in the cave. This is unheard of. Normally all 'human' finds are mixed with bones of animals. So how did these Hominid bones get into this deep, inaccessible chamber in Rising Star? It seemed to be a cemetery population. There were no signs of predation, no flow of material into the chamber, so were the bones put there? The brain is only slightly larger than that of a chimp, so could they have purposefully disposed of their dead? This would suggest highly advanced social behaviour.

This species could be an evolutionary experiment, as evolution went down many branches. It all adds to the story of our origins and fills in the gap at the start of our genus.

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Shown on UK Channel 4 , Sept 2015 .

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See my 2013 blog on the Rising Star expedition

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And see more Australopithecus sediba on Wikipedia.

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Rising Star Expedition, Johannesburg South Africa

News of a new expedition to look for human ancestor fossils in South Africa -

The Rising Star Expedition will be delving into a cave of the same name outside Johannesburg in South Africa. They will try and recover recently found fossils that are thought to be of a possibly new hominid species.

See reports  
 Rising Star Expedition launched from University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 6 Nov 2013

Excavation of Human Ancestor Fossils Begins in South African Cave in National Geographic Daily News, 6 Nov 2013.

In recent years new finds mean that the earlier thoughts on hominid/human evolution are being revised. See the Georgia hominid skull report.

You can follow the expedition progress here .


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2015 update on the finds, see my blog Homo naledi, a new species of human ancestor from South Africa .