Johannesburg, South Africa - A recently discovered juvenile hominid skeleton, of the new Australopithecus Sediba species, was given the name "Karabo" on Monday.
The name was announced during the 7th annual Standard Bank Past (Palaeontological Science Trust) key lecture at Wits delivered by Professor Lee Berger, whose nine-year-old son, Matthew, made the initial discovery of the historic fossil.
The name Karabo, which means "answer" in Setswana, was submitted by 17-year-old learner Omphemetse Keepile.
The learner at St Mary's school in Waverley, Johannesburg, was named the winner of the naming competition, entered by 15 000 learners and students across South Africa.
In her presentation just before being announced the winner of the naming competition, Keepile said she chose the name Karabo because "it suggests that answers are present and that more answers will follow".
"The fossil represents a solution to understanding the origins of humankind. It has helped researchers to seek much deeper into the information that they have and the information that they will acquire through this discovery," she said.
"It has enabled them to broaden their former understanding of the concept of humankind."
Karabo is a 1.95-million-year-old partial hominid skeleton, who would have been between nine and 13 years old when he died.
A part of the young fossil was first discovered by Matthew during an exploration project led by his father to map known caves identified at the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage site, near Johannesburg, in August 2008.
A second partial skeleton of an adult woman was also found in the same area.
Berger said the Sediba fossils are by far the most complete remains of any hominids found dating back to about two million years ago and possibly one of the most significant palaeontological discoveries in recent time.
During his lecture, Berger gave a detailed encounter of how when his son first told him he had found a fossil he almost immediately thought he was going to show him an antelope until he looked at it and found it was a hominid.
He said information already given to the media about the Sediba fossils since their discovery was merely the tip of the iceberg as researchers continue making more discoveries that will be made known in due time.
Berger is a reader in human evolution and public understanding of science in the Institute for Human Evolution at the School of Geosciences at Wits.
He is also an acclaimed author, speaker and an award-winning researcher. - Sapa