"Just one bone would be exciting but this is apparently the whole skeleton -- the secret to knowing how the creature functioned. This eliminates any speculation,'' said Professor Phillip Tobias, who led the team of researchers from South Africa's University of the Witwatersrand. He told a news conference the discovery would aid the search for the missing link in man's evolution from ape to human.
"It is the most important find out of South Africa since the Taung skull was found in 1924 (and) this probably exceeds that in importance,'' he said.
Past finds of ape-man fossils, including the oldest hominid bones, found in East Africa, have only been partial skulls or skeletons. Ron Clarke, director of excavations at Sterkfontein, said the complete significance of the fossil would emerge after the ape-man had been unearthed from a 15-meter-deep limestone shaft. "But what we do already know is that it will reveal a very great deal about the anatomy and evolution of an early ape-man.'' He said preliminary evidence showed that the ape-man not only walked upright, but was also a tree climber.
Tobias said the age of the fossil would also help to provide clues about when some apes had evolved into humans. "We're getting down nearer to the critical parting of the ways between apes and us -- perhaps five to seven million years,'' Tobias said.
Clarke's assistants, Nkwane Molefe and Stephen Motsumi, described how had they spent a year in the dark, wet cavern chipping away at the limestone after finding a few bones discarded by limestone workers. Clarke said there were signs of further hominid fossils at Sterkfontein, which the South African government has nominated to become a World Heritage site.
S.Africa Finds 3.6 Million-Year-Old Ape-Man
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (Reuters) - South African researchers said Wednesday they had discovered the almost complete skeleton of an ape-man estimated to be 3.6 million years old, which could provide long sought-after clues to human evolution. The four-foot-tall fossil was discovered at Sterkfontein on the outskirts of Johannesburg, which was also the site of the discovery of South Africa's first hominid or ape-man skull in 1924.
