Sibo meets Matthew
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By Ginny Stone
I guess, at some stage or other, we all have dreams of becoming
famous. Most of the time it's being a famous pop singer or player in a
band. Or even maybe breaking some sport record or scoring unbelievable
last minute goals. On 15 August 2008, Matthew Berger got lucky and is now
enjoying his first famous moments. I say his first, because he wants to be a
paleoanthropologist when he grows up and will probably have more of
these moments in his life.
Once again –
courtesy of good
old Wikki…
FOSSILS (from Latin fossus,
literally meaning "having
been dug up") are the
preserved remains or
traces of animals, plants
and other organisms from
the far distant past.
PALAEOANTHROPOLOGY,
which combines the
disciplines of palaeontology
and physical anthropology,
is the study of ancient
humans as found in fossil
hominid evidence such
as petrifacted bones
and footprints.
Photo courtesy of Matthew Berger
M
atthew was out at a fossil site
with his Dad, Lee Berger –
a well-known palaeoanthropologist
from Wits University – when he made
an awesome discovery. He found an
old fossil. Okay, duh – all fossils are
old – but this one turned out to be
1.9 million years old. (Actually, whilst
that might sound really, really old,
there are some fossils that have been
discovered that date back to about
3.5 billion years ago – eish!)
It was Matthew who found the first
bone, a collar bone, but when scientists
had finished digging around the Malapa
Cave in the Cradle of Human Kind
(only 15 kilometres from the site of
Sterkfontein where they have found
other important fossils), they ended up
with bits and pieces of two skeletons:
an adult woman and a boy.
They think that maybe a
mother and son fell into
the cave through a hole
in the cave ceiling whilst
trying to get to a pool of
water in the cave below.
While nobody will ever
know exactly what
happened so many
years ago, scientists
are rather like special
detectives, who can
piece clues together
and end up with a big
picture of what might
have happened.
Australopithecus sediba
is the name that has
been given to the new
hominid species that was
discovered in South Africa.
This is what actually
happened…
28
When you are born you have about 300 bones, but as
you grow, some of them fuse together and you end up
Do you often go fossil
with about 206 bones by the time you are all grown up!
hunting with your dad?
Your body is made up of the following stuff:
100 trillion cells / 206 bones / 600 muscles
I go as often as I can, but
Photo by Wits University
/ 22 internal organs.
because I have school this
If humans did not have bones – what do you think would happen?
stops me from going during the week, so every
Would you be able to walk? Oh no! You'd be a floppy old beanbag.
holiday I try to go as much as I can.
Eeergh! Imagine – you'd be a puddle of skin and guts on the floor. YUK!
Do you have a name that you'd
like the fossil to be called?
Skull buster maths
I do, but I'm one of the judges that will be picking the
1. A finger has three bones. A thumb
name from all the entries of a competition to name
has 2 bones. How many bones
him, so I'm not allowed to give him a name. But I'm
in 4 fingers and 1 thumb?
excited to see what names all the children have
2. There are 32 bones in an arm and
suggested for the Sediba boy.
a hand. How many bones are
Q
Q
Q
Sibo interviews
Matthew Berger
How did you first see A. Sediba's
collar bone?
We had gone to a fossil site my dad had found
a couple of weeks before. It didn't even have a
name. When we got there, he said “go look for
fossils!” So I did. I was following my dog Tau
down a path and I tripped over a log in the
middle of the path. As I fell I saw a big rock in
the grass, so I picked it up and there was the
clavicle (collar bone) sticking out. I thought it was
an antelope but I called my dad over just in case
it was something important. About five metres
away he started swearing and I was like:
“What did I do?” He said: “Nothing, nothing.
You found a hominid!”
Q
Did you get grossed out when you
realised you were holding a really, really
old bone, or was it beyond awesome?
It was beyond awesome, because I couldn't
believe it. We didn't know how old it was at
the time, though. We would only find out it was
about 1.9 million years old when the first studies
were done by my dad and the scientists
helping him.
Q
What did it feel like? Heavy? Cold?
Smooth? Rough?
It had a rough feeling and it was quite heavy
because it was in a rock. The rocks at the site
are made of limestone and are kind of like
cement. The fossil bones are preserved inside
of the hard rock, like if you threw chicken
bones into wet concrete and let it harden.
Q
Is it cool to have a famous dad
to go fossil hunting with?
Yes, it is really cool to go out and look
for fossils and not just to stay home,
playing on the computer,
watching TV and wasting time.
Q
I love playing soccer, cricket and athletics. I play left
wing in soccer, I play behind the wickie in cricket and
in athletics I mostly do running, high jump and long
jump. My very favourite thing, though, is going out
into the bush and looking for fossils and animals. The
Cradle is one of the best places to look for animals.
Do you have any idea what you want to
do when you grow up?
I am definitely going to be a palaeoanthropologist,
because I love going out to look for fossils.
You also get to work in a laboratory.
Q
Q
Do you have any pets?
I have three dogs named Tau, Sabi and Lady. Tau
and Sabi are ridgebacks and Tau was with me
when I found the fossil. Lady is a miniature
schnauzer. We have a cat named Callie, and she's
a calico cat, a snake named Corny (and yes he's a
corn snake!) and two guinea pigs that belong to
my sister. We call them Piglet and Shaggy.
Q
Is school cool?
Yes, school is cool sometimes, but I really enjoy the
sports the most.
Q
can't see it, but the smallest bone in your whole body –
C You
the stirrup bone – is in your head, behind your eardrum
Facts about bones
C
C
C
C
C
C
C
Science and history. Its fun to do
experiments and look into the past.
And of course sport!
Are you sick of silly
people (like me) asking
you questions?
No, not really. It is actually kind of fun
being interviewed. I like being on TV
the most, because everyone can
see you!
and is only 2.5 to 3.3 millimetres long!
Your lower jawbone is the only bone in your head that you can
move. It opens and closes to let you talk and chew food.
The human hand has 27 bones.
Your face has 14 bones.
The longest bone in your body is your thigh
bone, the femur. It's about 1/4 of your total
height in length.
Did you know that humans and giraffes
have the same number of bones in their
necks? Giraffe neck vertebrae are just
much, much longer!
You have over 230 moveable and
semi-moveable joints in your body.
The length of your radius is equal
to the length of your foot.
C Skull – protects brain;
C Backbone – protects spinal cord;
C Ribs – protect heart and lungs.
Bones that protect soft parts of the body
Which subjects do you like best?
EasyScience is produced by the South African Agency for Science and Technology
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Q
Thanks Matthew –
have a lovely life!
MiniMag
in 2 arms and 2 hands?
What do you normally do for fun?
Answers: 14 and 64
– the boy who found
Did you know….
Visit the website: www.saasta.ac.za for more information
Photo by Prof Lee
Berger, courtesy of
Wits University