Google Earth aids in SA fossil discovery

The discovery of the new hominid fossil yesterday, 9 April 2010, in the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site in South Africa is partly thanks to Google Earth. This is according to Michael Jones, chief technology advocate at Google. Professor Lee Berger from Witswatersrand University in Johannesburg used Google Earth to map known caves and fossil deposits and to locate new fossil deposits by learning to identify what cave sites looked like in satellite images. With the help of the navigation facility and high-resolution satellite imagery in Google Earth, Professor Berger went on to find almost 500 previously unidentified caves and fossil sites, says Jones.