India, Oct. 1 -- Few nine-year-old children ever encounter scientific discoveries; however, Matthew Berger came across one of his own. It happened in August 2008 when he discovered a clavicle at Malapa, a fossil-rich site in South Africa. The bone was later recognized as belonging to a previously undescribed hominin. Matthew's father, Lee Berger, headed the team of scientists that published the study in Science in 2010 titled Australopithecus sediba: A New Species of Homo-like Australopith from South Africa. The clavicle led researchers to a well-preserved juvenile skeleton, designated Malapa Hominin 1 (MH1), while a second partial skeleton, Malapa Hominin 2 (MH2), was also recovered from the site.

The researchers described two partial s...