100 years of Australopithecus
On 7 February 1925, Nature published a curious paper on a ‘missing link’ – the fossil of a form intermediate between apes and humans. The fossil, named Australopithecus africanus, confirmed Darwin’s suspicions that human origins lay in Africa, and opened the door to the study of human evolution in Africa. Ever since then, Nature – now augmented by other journals in the Nature Portfolio – has been the destination of choice for researchers publishing in this area. To mark the centenary, we proudly present a collection of 100 papers on palaeoanthropology in Africa selected from Nature, Nature Ecology and Evolution, and Nature Communications, in collaboration with Nature Africa. Selecting just 100 from more than 300 possible candidates has been very difficult, and we were forced to leave out many gems. However, in this collection you’ll find not only the first paper, but a selection of the letters debating its significance, as well as many other key discoveries, from Lucy to the Laetolil footprints, from the Leakeys’ discoveries at Olduvai to more recent finds in Ethiopia and elsewhere. The collection also shows the slow – too slow – transition from research conducted largely by western scientists to those who live and work in the countries where important fossils are found.
Editors
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Dr Henry Gee
Senior Editor, Nature
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Dr Luíseach Nic Eoin
Senior Editor, Nature Ecology & Evolution
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Dr Devin Ward
Senior Editor, Nature Communications
