A team of scientists has analyzed a set of two-million-year-old so-called ‘missing link’ fossils. Unlike anything presented before, their new study shows how the ancient human relative, Australopithecus sediba , 'walked like a human, but climbed like an ape'. Is this the missing link Darwin dreamed of?
A collection of two-million-year-old fossil vertebrae from an early human relative, discovered in Africa, has finally put to bed a long outstanding anthropological debate. The argument had always been whether Australopithecus sediba could both walk and climb trees, or not.
Now, a new paper shows that this early hominin was like a cat, being a master of both vertical and horizontal planes. The researchers have demonstrated how A. sediba used its upper limbs to climb trees and cliffs, while their lower limbs powered them along, walking like humans.
