Berger, for his part, contends that regardless of whether A. sediba ends up in the family tree, the fossils open a much needed window on the evolutionary processes at work during a poorly understood interval of human evolution. For instance, the morphological mosaic evidence in the skeletons shows that different parts of the body were changing at different times—the legs changed before the arms, and the pelvis changed before the brain.

Further insights may not be far off: Berger says he has found at least two more hominin skeletons in the cave. He is currently excavating them and has assembled a team of about 60 experts to analyze all of the material from the site in detail. Their to-do list includes determining whether the fossils might contain proteins or DNA suitable for sequencing, reconstructing the environment the hominins lived in, and studying differences between males and females. Such efforts will no doubt reveal an incredibly detailed portrait of this newest addition to the human family.

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