出典:Wikipedia
出典:『Wikipedia』 (2011/04/28 20:13 UTC 版)
Australopithecus sediba is a species of Australopithecus, based on fossil remains dated to between 1.95 and 1.78 million years ago in the early Pleistocene. The species is known from at least four partial skeletons discovered in the Malapa Fossil Site at the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site in South Africa, one a juvenile male (MH1, the holotype), an adult female (MH2), at least one other adult and an 18-month-old infant. Over one-hundred and thirty fragments from the species have been recovered to date. The partial skeletons were initially described in two papers in the journal Science by American and South African palaeo-anthropologist Lee R. Berger and colleagues as a newly discovered species of early human ancestor called Australopithecus sediba ("sediba" meaning "natural spring" or "well" in the Sotho language).