martes, 27 de noviembre de 2012

Loughborough academics excited by their research on two million year old skeletons

Two Loughborough University professors have been involved in the study of fossils discovered in South Africa which could prove to be a major breakthrough in our understanding of the evolution of modern humans.

Noel Cameron and Barry Bogin have completed 12 months of research on the near-two million year old fossilised bones, perhaps belonging to related individuals, that were found in a cave at Malapa, 25 miles from Johannesburg, in 2008.

Noel Cameron, Professor in Human Biology and Associate Dean for Research in the School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences, says the skeletons could be the ‘most significant find’ in man’s attempt to discover his direct ancestors.

Professor Cameron got involved in 2011, three years after the bones were found by a nine-year-old boy called Matthew Berger, son of Professor Lee Berger from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa.

While out with his father, Matthew discovered the fossilised remains of a juvenile male hominin, an ancestor to modern humans that was later dated to have lived almost two million years ago.

The remains of an adult female, another adult and an infant, were also discovered.

It is the first time that so much associated material has been found together. The quality of their preservation, and the extensive quantity of the cranial (head and jaw) and post-cranial (material other than the skull and jaw) material, make their contribution to our knowledge of our ancestors potentially extraordinary. [...] loughboroughecho.net

No hay comentarios: