Photographers at the unveiling by South African Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe and archaeologist Lee Berger of the University of the Witwatersrand of the remains of a new hominid. Two skeletons of a new hominid species dating back two dubbed Australopithecus sediba.
Credit: Joe Alexander/AFP
SYDNEY: Not all experts are convinced that the South African discovery of a two-million-year-old hominid is a new species.
The partially fossilised specimens, of an adult female in her twenties or thirties and a boy aged between 11 and 13, were found in 2008 in a cavern 40 km from Johannesburg, South Africa. The new species was baptised Australopithecus sediba by its discoverers, who published their find in the journal Science today.
To read about the find, see Two-million-year-old hominid sheds light on evolution.
Some experts, not involved in the study, argue the vague genus Australopithecus in which it was placed is merely a "wastebasket category" and say it couldn't possibly be an ancestor of modern humans, as claimed in the study.
Not a new species
"I am not sure whether a designation of a new separate species is necessary. In the human lineage there is a natural range of variation of characteristics of individuals and the new finds fit into this range," Maciej Henneberg, a professor of anthropological and comparative anatomy at the University of Adelaide, told the Australian Science Media Centre.
"One of the features used by the authors as indicating a new species is the relatively small cranial capacity 420 mL.
Hominid cranial capacity is highly variable, it does not correlate with intelligence and thus some individuals within the same species may have smaller, others larger cranial capacity. No need to use it as a trait separating species.
Similar comments apply to other characteristics of the new find. In conclusion: an important find having transitional characteristics between Australopithecus and Homo, but not necessarily a new species."
Or maybe it fits in genus Homo?
"The new 'australopithecine' is actually a new species of Homo. Judging by the description, it is a South African sister species to the contemporary east African Homo habilis," says Colin Groves, professor of archaeology and anthropology from the Australian National University in Canberra.
"In fact, the authors themselves pointed to certain similarities with early Homo, seeming even to admit that the predominance of its features were with Homo, only the small cranial capacity being really an "australopithecine" feature.
"But we now know of Homo floresiensis [the 'hobbit' that lived on the island of Flores in Indonesia until 12,000 years ago] with the cranial capacity more or less the same as the new species.
Retro Reason
Hilarious. Modern politically correct taxonomy dictates science (or mitigates the facts): "Hominid cranial capacity is highly variable, it does not correlate with intelligence and thus some individuals within the same species may have smaller, others larger cranial capacity. No need to use it as a trait separating species."
Professional Jealousy
Darren Curnoe is just jealous that HE didn't make the find!
Professional Jealousy
Comment from Lee Berger no doubt!