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Australian scientists date new species of early man

2010-04-09 09:14 BJT

CANBERRA, April 9 (Xinhua) -- Australian scientists were behind a breakthrough declaring that skeletal remains almost two million years old are a new species of early man, dubbed Australopithecus sediba.

The announcement on Friday has excited the branch of science looking at the development of early hominid species, The Canberra Times reports.

University of New South Wales scientist Andy Herries worked with fellow geochronological experts in Melbourne and Cairns to establish the age of the ancient remains at 1.78 to 1.95 million years.

"It's perhaps the best example yet of a transitional species ... between small-brained apes and larger-brained homo [erectus]," Dr Herries said of the newly discovered species. "There is certainly a complete change in the way that it walks, certainly more like modern humans."

An examination of the skeletal remains reveals a species that had long arms, like an ape, but short powerful hands and long legs enabling it to walk and possibly even run like a modern-day human.

The pair of early hominids were both about 1.3 meters tall, they would have weighed around 30 kilograms when they died, and their brains were around a third the size of a human.

Dr Herries said the fossilized bones were discovered at an old mine site in South Africa that was investigated as the result of some internet surfing.

The cave is inside the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage site, a 500sq km area north-west of Johannesburg that is dotted with caves and has already reaped some of the world's most significant fossils which indicate the evolution of man.

Editor: Zheng Limin | Source: Xinhua