Palaeoanthropologist discovers ancient ancestor, aided by Google Earth

Professor Lee Berger, a palaeoanthropologist from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, recently discovered a new species of hominid, Australopithecus sediba, almost two million years old, with the help of Google Earth.  According to the Official Google Blog, Berger used Google Earth to map known caves and fossil sites and then used the tool to find almost 500 previously unidentified caves and fossil sites.  One of these newly identified fossil sites led to the discovery of Australopithecus sediba.

Read the announcement from the University of Witwatersrand
Read the Google Blog Post