The discovery of fossilised bones from a 2-million-year-old hominid species that could be a direct ancestor of modern humans made international headlines when it was announced at the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site in Gauteng two years ago.

On Friday, another major announcement has revealed the discovery of yet more bones believed to be a part of that same partial skeleton discovered at the Malapa cave site in the Cradle of Humankind in 2009 that is a new species of hominid, Australopithecus sediba.

It has been widely, though not universally, hailed as a bona fide transitional species between early ape-like people and modern humans, showing a mosaic of characteristics shared by earlier species of apemen like Australopithecus africanus and more recent ancestors of humans such as Homo erectus.

The new bones – including parts of a jaw, a complete femur (thigh bone), ribs, vertebrae and other important limb elements – will create a completeness never before seen in the human fossil record, said Professor Lee Berger, a palaeoanthropologist at Wits University and leader of the Institute for Human Evolution’s research team investigating A. sediba.

“This discovery will almost certainly make Karabo (the name given to the skeleton) the most complete early human ancestor skeleton ever discovered,” said Berger, who made today’s announcement from Shanghai, where he is visiting as part of a SA delegation.

And another world first is that ordinary people will be able to watch in real time as scientists from Berger’s Institute for Human Evolution investigate the find and prepare the specimens – both on site at the Cradle of Humankind and through live internet streaming.

It will, however, be a very slow process, because the “new” bones are encased in a solid rock.

It’s all something of a Berger family affair.

The bones of Karabo, probably a boy aged between about nine and 13, and another partial skeleton were discovered by Berger’s then nine-year-old son Matthew.

He was on a fossil hunt with his father at the newly discovered subterranean cave site.

For more details go to http://www.iol.co.za