They discovered
australopith faces and jaws were strongest in the areas most likely to receive a punch.
Washington, June 10 ( ANI ): Researchers have claimed that human faces -especially those of our
australopith ancestors - evolved to minimize injury from punches to the face during fights between males.
They found that
australopith faces and jaws were strongest in just those areas most likely to receive a blow from a fist.
Berger L R, De Ruiter D J, Churchill S E, Schmid P, Carlson K J, Dirks P H G M, Kibii J M, 2010, "Australopithecus sediba: a new species of Homo-like
Australopith from South Africa" Science 328 195-204
The rise of the hominids as an adaptive shift in fallback foods: Plant underground storage organs (USOs) and
australopith origins.
They show more characteristics that align them with Homo than [has] any other
Australopith we've ever encountered," says de Ruiter.
Smaller-jawed
australopith ecines turn up mainly in conjunction with the monkeys and other forest animals, Behrensmeyer notes.
Early human relatives called
australopiths were smaller on average than their predecessors, and early humans continued to remain small till the arrival of Homo erectus, the study found.
The brain of H naledi came close in size to that of very early members of the Homo genus and of ancient
australopiths " and was only slightly larger than that of a chimpanzee.
Anthropologists from the University of Kent, working with researchers from University College London, the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig (Germany) and the Vienna University of Technology (Austria), have produced the first research findings to support archaeological evidence for stone tool use among fossil
australopiths 3-2 million years ago.
These species clearly are more closely related to humans than other
australopiths from East Africa, according to research appearing in Science, which reveals that both sediba and africanus share about the same number of dental traits with the first undeniably human species.
Next, in considering
Australopiths, he claims that these "bipedal apes" adapted both to open savannahs and arboreal habitats.
