Duke describes new relative in human race

The Thursday issue of Science describes a new finding in the history of the human race. Australopithecus sediba lived about 1.977 million years ago, and had features of both the Australopithecus lineage, like Lucy, and the more modern Homo lineage, which includes modern people.

In a display of replica casts of two Australopithecus sediba specimens, Duke University anthropologist Steven Churchill explains how the bones indicate that 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.