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. Paleoanthropologists can tell what Au. The foot is notably apelike with elongated toes and a fully divergent great toe for moving about in trees. She is an Australopithecus afarensis and lived in Eastern Africa between 3.85 and 2.95 million years ago. The species was formally named in 1978 following a wave of fossil discoveries at Hadar, Ethiopia, and Laetoli, Tanzania. Below are some of the still unanswered questions about Au. (The most famous specimen of A. afarensis is the famous "Lucy.") It is very long, which allowed its fingertips to extend at least to the knee. 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. Please select which sections you would like to print: While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Australopithecus Africanus Jaw/Teeth Features. Director of the Institute of Human Origins and Professor of Paleoanthropology, School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona. Corrections? Australopithecus is an extinct hominid which lived approximately 4 million to 2 million years ago from the Late Pliocene Period through the Early Pleistocene Period. She was only about 3 feet, 8 inches tall. Around 1.8 million years ago a new type of hominin emerged in Africa, Indonesia, and China called Homo erectus (standing man)—the first ancestor in the Homo lineage that leads incontrovertibly to Homo sapiens (thinking man) or to us, in other words.. 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. As characterized by the fossil evidence, members of Australopithecus bore a combination of humanlike and apelike traits. This species may be a direct descendant of Au. Learn vocabulary, terms, and more with flashcards, games, and other study tools. The first fossils were discovered in the 1930s, but major fossil finds would not take place until the 1970s. Overview: Australopithecus afarensis is one of the longest-lived and best-known early human species—paleoanthropologists have uncovered remains from more than 300 individuals! 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. 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. Nuts and bolts classification: Arbitrary or not? Alemseged, Z., Spoor, F., Kimbel, W.H., Bobe, R., Geraads, D., Reed, D., Wynn, J.G., 2006. anamensis and may be ancestral to later species of Paranthropus, Australopithecus, and Homo. Australopithecus afarensis, famously known as 'Lucy', is an extinct hominid that lived between 3.9 and 2.9 million years ago. A juvenile early hominin skeleton from Dikika, Ethiopia. An Australopithecus skeleton fossil named as “Lucy” was found in Ethiopia that has been dated back to 3.2 million years ago. The evolutionary scientists believe suddenly australopith species became a Homo genus (like Homo habilis) two million years ago in Africa and eventually the modern humans Homo sapiens came into being. The Australopithecines are divided into two groups: the Gracile Australopithecines and the Robust Australopithecines.. 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. Australopithecus afarensis was slenderly built, and closely related to the genus Homo, possibly as a direct ancestor or a close relative of an unknown ancestor. afarensis had mainly a plant-based diet, including leaves, fruit, seeds, roots, nuts, and insects… and probably the occasional small vertebrates, like lizards. 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). A. anamensis had a jaw like a chimp, but teeth that were clearly hominid. afarensis had a shorter period of growing up than modern humans have today, leaving them less time for parental guidance and socialization during childhood. The Taung child,which was found in 1924, provided the first evidence that early humans inhabited Africa. Australopithecus africanus ate like an ape because it was an ape. Kimbel, W.H., Delezene, L.K., 2009. ramidus also indicate that it was at home in a wooded environment (see also Ardi). Despite this connection to later stone tool capable species nobody really believed that Australopithecus was capable of creating such technology. While st… Australopithecus apparently lived close together in very large numbers, c… Like later hominins, it has teeth with thick molar enamel, but, unlike humans, it has distinctively apelike canine and premolar teeth. Several other anatomical characteristics of Ar. The first Australopithecus described was the Taung Child, discovered by Raymond Dart, and described in 1925.. Their remains are mostly found in East Africa, and the first fossil is from 3.9 million years ago (mya). The genus name, meaning “southern ape,” refers to the first fossils found, which were discovered in South Africa. 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. The teeth have thick enamel, like the teeth of all later hominins but unlike those of Ar. The case for its hominin status rests on the humanlike features of the femur. Once again, there is no evidence that A. africanus was in any way or form related to humans.