NEWS & VIEWS RESEARCH

new theories on how biological systems process
information, and thus allow such systems to be
more finely controlled. ■
Herbert M. Sauro and Kyung Hyuk Kim
are in the Department of Bioengineering,
University of Washington, Seattle,
Washington 98195-5061, USA. 3. Moon, T. S., Lou, C., Tamsir, A., Stanton, B. C. & Voigt,
e-mails: hsauro@u.washington.edu; C. A. Nature 491, 249–253 (2012).
kkim@uw.edu 4. Sarpeshkar, R. Neural Comput. 10, 1601–1638
(1998).
1. Daniel, R., Rubens, J. R., Sarpeshkar, R. & Lu, T. K. 5. Sarpeshkar, R. Ultra Low Power Bioelectronics:
Nature 497, 619–623 (2013). Fundamentals, Biomedical Applications, and
2. Qian, L. & Winfree, E. Science 332, 1196–1201 Bio-Inspired Systems (Cambridge Univ. Press,
(2011). 2010).

PAL A EOANTHRO PO LO GY erupted) is treated as though its growth had

been completed. However, for most dimen-

Hesitation on sions, hominoid mandibles achieve only

around 75–90% of their adult values by the
time of the second molar eruption 10. So,

hominin history
although the A. sediba mandibles seem to be
small and lightly built (and thus Homo-like) by
australopith standards, it is unclear how much
of this impression is due to the authors’ use of a
Extensive studies of fossil skeletons of Australopithecus sediba provide sample comprising a sub-adult and a presumed
fascinating details of the anatomy of this hominin species, but do not adult female (MH2).
convincingly indicate its position on the evolutionary route to modern humans. Much of the value of the Malapa material
lies in the extremely rare association of upper
and lower limb parts with elements of the axial
WILLIAM H. KIMBEL 2.3 million years old), potentially ancestral, skeleton in two individuals of the same species
southern African species with which it also (Fig. 1). These skeletons paint a portrait of a

T
he evolutionary events that led to shares some key cranial features1. If this find- pectoral girdle that retains more ape-like anat-
the origin of the Homo lineage are an ing is borne out by further work, then the rele- omy than the pelvic girdle5,11. Churchill et al.5
enduring puzzle in palaeoanthropology, vance of A. sediba to the origin of Homo would report that a fairly complete scapula (from
chiefly because the fossil record from between be inextricably tied to that of A. africanus, MH2) features an upwardly tilted arti­culation
3 million and 2 million years ago is frustrat- whose own position in hominin phylogeny is for the humerus and a relatively broad attach-
ingly sparse, especially in eastern Africa. by no means settled9. ment area for a muscle that helps to lift the arm
Much attention has been paid to two fossilized De Ruiter and colleagues’ analysis of the over the head, a familiar australopith upper-
skeletons, found in approximately 2-million- A. sediba mandible4 includes a measurement- limb pattern that also includes long, strong
year-old sediments at the Malapa cave site in based comparison in which the sub-adult forearms and curved fingers. Although these
South Africa, that are recognized as represent- individual MH1(with only its second molar features are embedded in a terrestrial bipedal
ing the species Australopithecus sediba. frame, they are often interpreted as signs
These have been the focus of scrutiny of retained ancestral arboreal climbing

BRENT STIRTON, COURTESY LEE R. BERGER & UNIV. WITWATERSRAND

because of both their excellent preserva- behaviour5,12. Still unsettled is what
tion and claims1,2 that this hominin — a led to the refashioning of the hominin
species more closely related to humans shoulder by the time, around 1.6  million
than to chimpanzees — lies at the base years ago, of Homo erectus, a species that
of the Homo lineage. A series of reports shows modern upper-limb and shoulder
published in Science3–8 sheds light on morphology (this anatomy is unknown
the morphology of A. sediba but, in my in the approximately contemporaneous
view, does little to elucidate its role in Homo habilis). Simply leaving the trees
later human evolution. seems to be an insufficient explanation.  
Dental morphology is a frequent Schmid et al.6 used the low curvature
source of information about hominin of the upper ribs of A. sediba to argue for
phylogeny but, in the first of these new a conical ribcage and elevated shoulders
papers, Irish et al.3 take the unconven- similar to those of the great apes, even
tional step of using only the Arizona though second- and fourth-rib curva-
State University Dental Anthropology tures do not actually distinguish apes
System — a graded series of minor from humans. However, it is clear that
crown variants originally devised to the unusually strongly curved first rib
distinguish recent human populations articulates only with the first thoracic
from one another — to decipher rela- vertebra, as in humans and Australo-
tionships between hominin species that pithecus afarensis. This configuration
are millions of years old. I have serious is at odds with a completely ape-like
doubts about the phylogenetic mean- upper thorax and has been associated
ing of morphological similarity in this with descent of the shoulder after the
case. These concerns are compounded upper limbs were freed from locomo-
by the authors’ reliance on the gorilla Figure 1 | Australopithecus sediba.   A series of papers3–8 tion13, although this interpretation has
as the sole outgroup in their cladistic presents extensive studies of these two fossil skeletons, which been contested14. A further puzzle is the
analysis. Their results link A. sediba date to approximately 2 million years ago. The authors compare A. afarensis partial skeleton KSD-VP
exclusively to Australopithecus africanus, the anatomy of this hominin to that of other species of the 1/1, which, although 1.6 million years
an older (approximately 2.7 million to Australopithecus and Homo genera. older than the A. sediba skeletons, has

3 0 M AY 2 0 1 3 | VO L 4 9 7 | NAT U R E | 5 7 3
© 2013 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved
 RESEARCH NEWS & VIEWS
an upper thorax more similar to that of mod-
ern humans15. A lower (ninth) rib from MH2,
which is more like those of modern humans
in its curvature and torsion, is consistent with
the less flaring pelvic rim of A. sediba when
compared with A. afarensis and A. africanus6,11.
The ‘long-backed’ lumbosacral vertebral
formula of six lumbar and four sacral ver-
tebrae that is seen in species from australo-
piths through to Homo erectus is the probable
primitive condition for humans and the great
apes16. The evolution of the most common
modern-human condition of five lumbar and
five sacral vertebrae occurred by ‘sacralization’
of the lowermost lumbar vertebra. Williams
et al.7 argue that MH2 is unusual for an early
hominin in having this derived pattern, but the
MH2 formula depends on how one defines a
lumbar vertebra — by a lack of rib articula-
tions or by functional criteria that relate to
intervertebral movement. In early hominins,
the first of the six functional lumbar verte-
brae carries rib articulations that are similar
to those of a thoracic vertebra. MH2, in fact,
resembles other Australopithecus specimens in
having six functional lumbars, but this is unex-
pected in an early hominin with five sacral
vertebrae.
The last of the papers presents DeSilva and
colleagues’ reconstruction of the A. sediba
gait8 (based on the MH2 skeleton), which
will be controversial. The proposed ‘hyper­­
pronation’ of the foot and extreme inward rota-
tion of the leg and thigh suggest an ungainly
bipedal stride that might have made it into
Monty Python’s ‘Ministry of Silly Walks’
sketch. The presumed inversion of the foot
at the heel-strike of the surprisingly ape-like
calcaneus, combined with a vertical shank
(tibia), outwardly angled thigh (femur) and a
long, lordotic lower back — all hallmarks of
terrestrial bipedality in Australopithecus and
Homo species — constrains the reconstruc-
tion. Prominent osteophytic growths on the
pelvis and fibula at the attachment sites of the
thigh musculature raise the possibility of a gait
that was pathologically impaired, but DeSilva
and colleagues argue that this locomotor pat-
tern was adaptive. However, if A. sediba was a
descendant of A. africanus, which, similarly to
the even older A. afarensis (dating to between
3.7 million and 3.0 million years ago), shows
no trace of this pattern, then it is hard to imag-
ine the selective advantage that would accrue
from such a kinematically peculiar gait.
Given the mix of features seen in A. sediba,
it is difficult to understand why these research-
ers insist that it lies at the base of the Homo
lineage1,2. Similar intellectual gymnastics are
required to comprehend the authors’ argu-
ment that no African Homo fossils exist from
before the time of A. sediba2,17. Although the
recent papers constitute a fascinating further
analysis of the A. sediba fossils, I do not think
that they provide compelling evidence that
this species is anything other than an unusual
5 7 4 | NAT U R E | VO L 4 9 7 | 3 0 M AY 2 0 1 3
australopith from a Pliocene–Pleistocene
time period that is already populated by a fair
number of them18. ■
William H. Kimbel is at the Institute of
Human Origins and the School of Human
Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State
University, Tempe, Arizona 85287-4101, USA.
e-mail: wkimbel.iho@asu.edu
1. Berger, L. R. et al. Science 328, 195–204 (2010).
2. Pickering, R. et al. Science 333, 1421–1423 (2011).
3. Irish, J. D., Guatelli-Steinberg, D., Legge, S. S.,
de Ruiter, D. J. & Berger, L. R. Science http://dx.doi.
org/10.1126/science.1233062 (2013).
4. de Ruiter, D. J. et al. Science http://dx.doi.
org/10.1126/science.1232997 (2013).
5. Churchill, S. E. et al. Science http://dx.doi.
org/10.1126/science.1233477 (2013).
6. Schmid, P. et al. Science http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/
science.1234598 (2013).
7. Williams, S. A. et al. Science http://dx.doi.
org/10.1126/science.1232996 (2013).
ASTR O PH YSI CS
A glimpse inside
a magnetar
Hundreds of neutron stars have exhibited ‘glitches’ in their spin-down rates — an
indication of ultra-dense superfluids in their interiors. Now one highly magnetized
star has shown a surprising glitch in the ‘wrong’ direction. See Letter p.591
ROBERT C. DUNCAN
A
neutron star resembles a giant atomic
nucleus, with 1–2 times the Sun’s mass
packed into a ball about 20 kilometres
across. Its gravity is so strong that a projec-
tile would need to be launched at about half
the speed of light to escape from its surface.
Extreme density, pressure, temperature, mag-
netism and relativistic gravity make these
objects fascinating but challenging to study.
Surprising observations of spin-down irregu-
larities in one intensely magnetized neutron
star, reported by Archibald et al.1 on page 591
of this issue, offer clues about exotic processes
occurring deep inside these objects.
The basic structure of a neutron star is
generally agreed on. It has a crust about 1 km
thick, in which nuclei are arranged in a crystal
lattice immersed in a ‘sea’ of electrons. Near
the surface, the nuclei are plain iron, but the
pressure and density increase rapidly with
depth, so that the nuclei become increas-
ingly bloated and neutron-rich. At moder-
ate depth, neutrons ‘drip’ out of the nuclei,
forming a neutral liquid between the lattice
nuclei. At the base of the crust, the bloated
nuclei merge. Below this lies pure nuclear
fluid, more than 200 trillion times denser than
liquid water.
© 2013 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved
8. DeSilva, J. M. et al. Science http://dx.doi.
org/10.1126/science.1232999 (2013).
9. Grine, F. E. in The Paleobiology of Australopithecus
(eds Reed, K. E., Fleagle, J. G. & Leakey, R. E.)
73–104 (Springer, 2013).
10. Humphrey, L. T. in Human Growth in the Past:
Studies from Bones and Teeth (eds Hoppa, R. &
FitzGerald, C.) 65–87 (Cambridge Univ. Press,
1999).
11. Kibii, J. M. et al. Science, 333, 1407–1411 (2011).
12. Larson, S. G. in The Paleobiology of Australopithecus
(eds Reed, K. E., Fleagle, J. G. & Leakey, R. E.)
247–262 (Springer, 2013).
13. Ohman, J. C. Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. 70, 209–229
(1986).
14. Stern, J. T. Jr & Jungers, W. L. Am. J. Phys. Anthropol.
82, 431–439 (1990).
15. Haile-Selassie, Y. et al. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 107,
12121–12126 (2010).
16. McCollum, M. A., Rosenman, B. A., Suwa, G.,
Meindl, R. S. & Lovejoy, C. O. J. Exp. Zool. 314B,
123–134 (2010).
17. Berger, L. R. J. Anthropol. Sci. 90, 1–16 (2012).
18. Kimbel, W. H. in Handbook of Paleoanthropology
Vol. 3 (eds Henke, W. & Tattersall, I.) 1539–1574
(Springer, 2007).
Unlike atomic nuclei, which contain almost
equal numbers of protons and neutrons, the
nuclear fluid inside a neutron star has roughly
20 neutrons for every proton, a ratio main-
tained by neutrino-emitting processes. There
is also one electron or muon (‘heavy electron’)
per proton, ensuring charge neutrality. These
particles are forced together by tremendous
pressure, but quantum mechanics requires
them to occupy different states, so they fill
all available energy states up to a high energy,
the Fermi energy. Deep below the crust, as the
pressure rises, neutron and proton Fermi ener-
gies get so high that exotic, strongly interacting
particles such as hyperons and mesons might
join the mix. The actual fluid composition at
very high densities is uncertain. It is possible
that the innermost, central core consists of a
‘soup’ of quarks, the elementary particles that
make up protons and neutrons.
Fortunately, observations of neutron stars
yield insight into their interiors. The most
thoroughly studied neutron stars are radio
pulsars, which emit radio blips as they rotate.
Timing the blips reveals that these stars stead-
ily spin down. This is due to their intrinsic
magnetism: as radio pulsars spin, they blow
out magnetic waves and winds of fast charged
particles, which carry away angular momen-
tum. Interestingly, this steady spin-down is