john hawks weblog

paleoanthropology, genetics and evolution

Malapa MH 1 fossil given nickname

Tue, 2010-06-01 20:30 -- John Hawks

They held a contest for schoolchildren to give a nickname to the new MH 1 skeleton, and now they've made a choice:

The juvenile hominid skeleton (Australopithecus sediba) unveiled to the world by Wits Professor Lee Berger, just over a month ago, has been given a new name: Karabo.

Karabo means 'answer' in Setswana. The name was submitted by 17-year-old Omphemetse Keepile, a student at St. Mary's School in Waverly, Johannesburg.

Keepile says that she came up with the name 'Karabo' because 'it suggests that answers are present [and] that more answers will follow'.

Vastly better than most.

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Denisova

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Acceleration

The advent of agriculture caused natural selection to speed up greatly in humans. We're uncovering some of the ways that populations have rapidly changed during the last 10,000 years.

Malapa

Just outside Johannesburg, the Malapa site is producing some of the most exciting finds in human evolution. This site is the headquarters of the Malapa Soft Tissue Project.