[M.D. Holloway]

The site of Malapa, South Africa, has yielded perhaps the richest assemblage of early hominin fossils on the continent of Africa. The fossil remains of Au. sediba were discovered in August of 2008, and the species was named in 2010. In 2011, detailed studies of four critical areas of anatomy of these remains were published in Science, and a refined date of ~1.977 to 1.98 Ma was proposed for their age. In 2013, Science presents six articles that complete the initial examination of the prepared material attributed to three individuals: the holotype and paratype skeletons, commonly referred to as MH1 and MH2, and the adult isolated tibia referred to as MH4. They, along with the cumulative research published over the past 3 years, provide us with a comprehensive examination of the anatomy of a single species of early hominin.

Science/AAAS | Special Collection: Australopithecus sediba