A 'Strong Confirmation of Evolutionary Theory' Has Been Found

In a finding that some are calling an evolutionary "game-changer," researchers say they've found two million-year-old bones in South Africa that belonged to a transitional figure that came before modern humans, reports the AP's Randolph Schmid. The bones, belonging to Australopithecus sediba, is a likely candidate to be the ancestor to humans, as the fossils show a combination of features from Australopithecene and Homo genera, Schmid adds. The study, published in Science, says the brain, hand, and foot have characteristics of both modern and early pre-human forms. "This is what evolutionary theory would predict, this mixture of Australopithecene and Homo," Texas A&M University's Darryl DeRuiter, one of the study's authors, tells Schmid. "It's strong confirmation of evolutionary theory."