The recovery of new fossil lumbar, or lower back, vertebrae of a single individual of the hominin species Australopithecus sediba, and portions of other vertebrae of the same female from Malapa, South Africa, together with previously discovered vertebrae form one of the most complete lower backs ever discovered in the early hominid record and give insight into how this ancient human relative walked and climbed. Researchers from New York University, the University of Johannesburg (UJ), the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits University) and 14 other institutions nicknamed the female skeleton “Issa", meaning protector in Swahili. The discovery also established that, like humans, Australopithecus sediba had only five lumbar vertebrae.
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