South Africa has been of great interest for researchers studying human origins since the discovery of the "Taung Child" - Australopithecus africanus -fossil in 1924. However, making sense of the relationship between different hominin species in South Africa has always been challenging, in large part because of the issues of dating them accurately.

To address this, a study conducted by Wenjing Yu and her colleagues has used the direct dating method US-ESR dating to explore the mystery of one of our earliest ancestors, Australopithecus africanus, presenting insights into human evolution and the deep history of ourselves. A central research question of the Taung Child site is understanding the lineage evolution of Australopithecus africanus.

Wenjing's research is the first attempt at directly dating the mammal teeth from the Taung site. Using the combined US-ESR dating method (Uranium-Series and Electron Spin Resonance) to directly date the hominin teeth buried in the same layer as the Taung Child will bring significant progress to our understanding of our origin. The demonstrated success in this aim permits the assessment of human evolution at a scale never before achieved.

In recognition of the quality and significance of her research, Wenjing Yu is the First Prize Winner in the Earth Sciences category for the Royal Society of Victoria's Young Scientist Research Prizes in 2023. Wenjing's presentation has been filmed and published with the support of the Inspiring Victoria program.