Question

For this extra credit assignment, I want you to do a websearch! Hominin fossils are being discovered in areas that are newly being investigated! (by the way…when I took this class-there were only a handful of these creatures---aren’t you lucky that they are being discovered now?!?). What I want you to do is choose one of the hominins below and answer the questions-very similar to your cave art exercise.

Choose from:    Australopithecus sediba

                              Homo luzonensis

                              Homo Naledi

1- What is its closest relative (for instance, did it develop from H erectus or Neanderthal or?)

2- When did this species roam the earth?

3- What is special about it? Why should we care?

4- What websites did you choose to research your species?

Answer 1

Australopithecus sediba

A New Species of Australopithecus of the early Pleistocene, from South Africa.Identified based on fossil remains dated to about 2 million years ago, two partial skeletons, an adult female and young male, found from a site called Malapa

1- What is its closest relative

CLOSEST RELATIVES :

Morphological basis A. sediba is distinct from but still closely related to both Homo habilis and Australopithecus africanus.

RESEMBLANCE :

Earlier Australopithecus

• Details of the teeth,
• the length of the arms and legs,
• the narrow upper chest
• skeleton shows a body similar to that of other australopithecines
• small cranial capacity

Humans:

• other tooth traits
• broad lower chest resemble humans.
• strength of the humerus and femur show that Au. sediba had a more human-like pattern of locomotion

These indicate that Au. sediba carries information about the origins and ancestor of the genus Homo. Functional changes in the pelvis point to the evolution of upright walking,   The Australopithecus sediba skull has several features, such as relatively small premolars and molars, and facial features that are more similar to those in Homo. The fossils also elicit that changes in the pelvis and the dentition occurred before changes in limb proportions or cranial capacity.

2- When did this species roam the earth?

WHERE WHEN THEY ROAMED:

Extinct primate species that inhabited southern Africa beginning about 1.98 million years ago.

3- What is special about it? Why should we care?

SIGNIFICANCE: sediba is important because it provides insights into hominin variation around the period when the genus Homo emerged.The combination of primitive and derived traits in Australopithecus sediba shows part of the transition from a form adapted to partial arboreality to one primarily adapted to bipedal walking,but the legs and feet point to a previously unknown way of walking upright. With each step, Australopithecus sediba turned its foot inward with its weight focused on the outer edge of the foot. This odd way of striding may mean that upright walking evolved on more than one path during human evolution.Scientists are yet debating its validity as a species and its relationships with humans.

4- What websites did you choose to research your species?

1. https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/is-australopithecus-sediba-the-most-important-human-ancestor-discovery-ever/
2. https://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/human-fossils/species/australopithecus-sediba

3. en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Australopithecus_sediba