KEY hominid fossils from South Africa thought to be our direct ancestors are instead just one of our cousins. So says a team of palaeontologists from Johannesburg, further fuelling the debate over humankind’s past.
The team, led by Lee Berger of the University of the Witwatersrand, took a second look at world-famous Australopithecus africanus fossils recovered from the Sterkfontein caves (see Map). The bones were thought to be up to 3.5 million years old. But using revised dating methods Berger’s team now suggests the specimen known as Little Foot, thought to be the oldest Australopithecus fossil at Sterkfontein, is…
