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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400,000-year-old Hominin bones from cave in Spain

Excavations in caves in northern Spain have revealed hominin fossils that range in age from the early Pleistocene to the Holocene.The caves are in the Sierra de Atapuerca.

One site was found to contain the world’s largest collection of Middle Pleistocene hominin fossils, from at least 28 individuals4 dated to over 300,000 years ago.

The DNA has baffled scientists as the bones share a number of morphological features with fossils classified as Homo heidelbergensis and also show distinct Neanderthal-derived traits. This Sima de los Huesos hominin seems closely related to the lineage of Denisovans, an eastern Eurasian sister group to Neanderthals, from southwest Siberia.

The fossils were found in the 1990s but this news only came out in Dec 2013.

Info from Nature letter.See another write up in Nature .

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 .

New hominid skull from Georgia

In October 2013 it was announced that a complete hominid skull had been discovered in Georgia.

From The Guardian , 17 October:
The discovery of a complete hominid skull and other fossil remains in Dmanisi, Georgia, suggests that the earliest members of the Homo genus – currently split into half a dozen distinct species – actually belonged to a single species: Homo erectus. These early human ancestors probably just had a wide range of physical appearances, say researchers in the journal Science. The skull is 1.8m years old and has a small braincase, a long face and large teeth, a combination of features not previously seen in other early Homo fossils.

Click on the above link to see a short video.And read more on this link.


The skull, along with stone tools and animal bones have been dated at 1.8 myo. This fossil is the only intact skull ever found of a human ancestor that lived in the early Pleistocene. Bones were found from five individuals. Animal bones include those from now extinct large cats.

The bones are said to be early forms of Homo erectus, the early relative of modern humans. Now it seems that they  left Africa earlier than previously thought.

Abstract from Science 18 Oct 2013 - A Complete Skull from Dmanisi, Georgia, and the Evolutionary Biology of Early Homo .