Another new hominin

Remember Ardi? Well, today we learned of the 2 million year-old Australopithecus sediba, a mother and possibly her child fresh out of a cave in South Africa. Some are saying that A. sediba has more in common with Homo erectus than Homo habilis does, which might even make the handy man sort of a side species. That's crazy when you think about it, but H. habilis has always been a bit of an enigma anyway. If I was him, I'd use my killer stone flakes and stab this new species in the eye.

The features for A. sediba are: small brain, small body, very long arms (all earlier australopithecine traits), advanced pelvis, small teeth, and projecting nose (later Homo traits). So now the problem is trying to put this sucker on the human evolutionary tree.

Side note: The team that discovered the bones used Google Earth to determine a good site for digging. And a 9 year-old made the initial discovery, which was of a clavicle. Old people, watch out.