New fossil may be ‘missing link’ in human family tree

An analysis of two million-year-old bones found in South Africa offers the most powerful case so far in identifying the transitional figure that came before modern humans – findings some are calling a potential game-changer in understanding evolution.

The bones are from Australopithecus sediba. The research places that pre-human branch of the evolutionary tree as the best candidate to be the ancestor of the human line, said Lee R. Berger of the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa.