Scribd
Upload
76 views

Primates Human Beings Fossils Africa Species Pliocene Pleistocene Genus South Africa Lucy

The document discusses the genus Australopithecus, which includes early hominin species that lived between 4.4 and 1.4 million years ago in Africa. Key findings include that Australopithecus species displayed a combination of human-like and ape-like traits, and the famous fossil known as Lucy is discussed as the most complete example of Australopithecus afarensis dated to 3.2 million years ago.

Uploaded by

lisa
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
76 views

Primates Human Beings Fossils Africa Species Pliocene Pleistocene Genus South Africa Lucy

The document discusses the genus Australopithecus, which includes early hominin species that lived between 4.4 and 1.4 million years ago in Africa. Key findings include that Australopithecus species displayed a combination of human-like and ape-like traits, and the famous fossil known as Lucy is discussed as the most complete example of Australopithecus afarensis dated to 3.2 million years ago.

Uploaded by

lisa
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 5

Australopithecus, (Latin: “southern ape”) (genus 

Australopithecus), group of
extinct primates closely related to, if not actually ancestors of, modern human beings and
known from a series of fossils found at numerous sites in eastern, north-central, and
southern Africa. The various species of Australopithecus lived 4.4 million to 1.4 million years
ago (mya), during the Pliocene and Pleistocene epochs (which lasted from 5.3 million to
11,700 years ago). The genus name, meaning “southern ape,” refers to the first fossils found,
which were discovered in South Africa. Perhaps the most famous specimen
of Australopithecus is “Lucy,” a remarkably preserved fossilized skeleton from Ethiopia that
has been dated to 3.2 mya.

Australopithecus afarensis
Artist's rendering of Australopithecus afarensis, which lived from 3.8 to 2.9 million years ago.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
replica skull of Lucy
Reconstructed replica of the skull of “Lucy,” a 3.2-million-year-old Australopithecus afarensis found by anthropologist Donald
Johanson in 1974 at Hadar, Ethiopia.
© Bone Clones, www.boneclones.com
As characterized by the fossil evidence, members of Australopithecus bore a combination of
humanlike and apelike traits. They were similar to modern humans in that they
were bipedal (that is, they walked on two legs), but, like apes, they had small brains.
Their canine teeth were smaller than those found in apes, and their cheek teeth were larger
than those of modern humans.

The general term australopith (or australopithecine) is used informally to refer to members of


the genus Australopithecus. Australopithecines include the genus Paranthropus (2.3–1.2
mya), which comprises three species of australopiths—collectively called the “robusts”
because of their very large cheek teeth set in massive jaws. Non-australopithecine members of
the human lineage (hominins) include Sahelanthropus tchadensis (7–6 mya), Orrorin
tugenensis (6 mya), Ardipithecus kadabba (5.8–5.2 mya), and Ar. ramidus (5.8–4.4 mya)—
that is, pre-Australopithecus species that are considered to be ancient humans—and one
additional species of early human, Kenyanthropus platyops (3.5 mya). The first undisputed
evidence of the genus Homo—the genus that includes modern human beings—appears as
early as 2.8 mya, and some of the characteristics of Homo resemble those of earlier species
of Australopithecus; however, considerable debate surrounds the identity of the earliest
species of Homo. In contrast, remains older than six million years are widely regarded to be
those of fossil apes.
hominid fossil sites in sub-Saharan Africa
A selection of locations in sub-Saharan Africa where hominid fossils have been found.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

The Australopiths
Early species and Australopithecus anamensis
Identifying the earliest member of the human tribe (Hominini) is difficult because the
predecessors of modern humans become increasingly apelike as the fossil record is followed
back through time. They resemble what would be expected in the common ancestor of
humans and apes in that they possess a mix of human and ape traits. For example, the
purported earliest species, Sahelanthropus tchadensis, is humanlike in having a slightly
reduced canine tooth and a face that does not project forward very far. However, in most
other respects, including brain size, it is apelike. Whether the species walked upright is not
known because only a single cranium, fragments from one or more mandibles (lower jaws),
and some teeth have been found.

australopith fossil locations


Approximate time ranges of sites yielding australopith fossils.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content.Subscribe Now

Bipedalism, however, appears to have been established in the six-million-year-old Orrorin


tugenensis, a pre-Australopithecus found in the Tugen Hills near Lake Baringo in central
Kenya. In 2001 these fossils were described as the earliest known hominin. O. tugenensis is
primitive in most if not all of its anatomy, except for femurs (thighbones) that appear to share
traits of bipedalism with modern humans. Like later hominins, it has teeth with thick
molar enamel, but, unlike humans, it has distinctively apelike canine and premolar teeth. The
case for its hominin status rests on the humanlike features of the femur. According to its
discoverers, features of the thighbone implying bipedalism include its overall proportions, the
internal structure of the femoral neck (the column joining the ball-shaped head of the femur
to the shaft of the bone), and a groove on the bone for a muscle used in upright walking (the
obturator externus).

Ardipithecus kadabba and Ar. ramidus


Another candidate for the earliest hominin is classified in the genus Ardipithecus (5.8–4.4
mya). The remains of Ar. kadabba (5.8–5.2 mya), which were discovered in the middle Awash
River valley in the Afar region of Ethiopia (a depression located in the northern part of the
country that extends northeast to the Red Sea), comprise fragments of limb bones, isolated
teeth, a partial mandible, and a toe bone. While the canine tooth is apelike in some respects, it
does not exhibit the classic interlocking honing complex (where the inner side of the upper
canine sharpens itself against the lower premolar [or bicuspid]). The toe bone assigned
to Ardipithecus exhibits bipedal anatomy, but it was found in sediments 400,000 years
younger than, and some 20 km (12.4 miles) away from, the fossil used to define Ar.
kadabba and may belong to another species of early hominin.

Ar. ramidus, which was discovered in the middle Awash valley in 1992 at a site named Aramis,
is known from a crushed and distorted partial skeleton. The skull is apelike with a tiny brain—
300–350 cc (18.3–21.4 cubic inches), which is equivalent to a brain weight of about 300–350
grams (10.6–12.3 ounces)—and a prognathic (projecting) snout. The foramen magnum (large
hole) at the base of the skull is located under the braincase, as in a biped, and not posteriorly,
as in a quadrupedal (four-legged) ape (see skull).

Several other anatomical characteristics of Ar. ramidus suggest that it was adapted to an


arboreal setting. The upper limb differs from that of modern humans. It is very long, which
allowed its fingertips to extend at least to the knee. The extremely large hands of the species
suggest a lifestyle that included significant climbing and other activities among the trees.
The pelvis is a mix of ape and human traits; it appears to be broader, shorter, and narrower
than an ape’s pelvis and reminiscent of a bipedal pelvis. The foot is notably apelike with
elongated toes and a fully divergent great toe for moving about in trees. Animal fossils, pollen,
and other evidence associated with Ar. ramidus also indicate that it was at home in a
wooded environment (see also Ardi).

Australopithecus anamensis

The earliest member of the genus Australopithecus is Au. anamensis, which was discovered in


northern Kenya near Lake Turkana at Kanapoi and Allia Bay. The species was first described
in 1995 after an analysis of isolated teeth, upper and lower jaws, fragments of a cranium, and
a tibia unearthed at the discovery sites. The fossils date to 4.2–3.9 mya, and,
like Ardipithecus, Au. anamensis is associated with woodland animals and a few grassland
species as well.

The snout is prognathic. The teeth have thick enamel, like the teeth of all later hominins but
unlike those of Ar. ramidus, which have apelike thin enamel. The tibia (shinbone) exhibits
anatomy at both the knee and ankle ends characteristic of later bipedal hominins.

A badly crushed and distorted cranium found at Lomekwi on the western shore of Lake
Turkana in northern Kenya in 1998 was assigned to a new genus and species, “human from
Kenya,” Kenyanthropus platyops (3.5 mya). It too is associated with woodland fauna. Whether
this singular specimen is truly a new species is widely debated, since the cranium may be a
highly distorted example of another species, Au. afarensis.

You might also like