Skip to main content

Australopithecus Sediba

Learn about a new species of hominin from 1.977 million years ago

Duke anthropologist Steven Churchill shows replica casts of two specimens of Australopithecus sediba, a new species of hominin being described in the Sept. 8 edition of Science. These two individuals have been dated at 1.977 million years ago, and have features of both the Australopithecus lineage, like Lucy, and the more modern Homo lineage, which includes us. Their remarkably complete skeletons indicate they ate a better diet and probably made use of stone tools, though their brains are still relatively small. They walked upright, but were still adept at tree-climbing.