Australopithecus afarensis is an extinct hominin Hominini is the tribe of Homininae that comprises Humans , and two species of the genus Pan (the Common Chimpanzee and the Bonobo), their ancestors, and the extinct lineages of their common ancestor. Members of the tribe are called hominins (cf. Hominidae, "hominids"). The subtribe Hominina is the "human" branch, including which lived between 3.7 and 2.9 million years ago.[citation needed] A. afarensis was slenderly built, like the younger Australopithecus africanus Australopithecus africanus was an early hominid, an australopithecine, who lived between 2–3 million years ago in the Pliocene. In common with the older Australopithecus afarensis, A. africanus was slenderly built, or gracile, and was thought to have been a direct ancestor of modern humans. Fossil remains indicate that A. africanus was. It is thought that A. afarensis was ancestral to both the genus Australopithecus Australopithecus is a genus of hominids that are now extinct. From the evidence gathered by palaeontologists and archaeologists, it appears that the Australopithecus genus evolved in eastern Africa around 4 million years ago before spreading throughout the continent and eventually becoming extinct 2 million years ago. During this time period, and the genus Homo Homo is the genus that includes modern humans and species closely related to them. The genus is estimated to be about 2.3 to 2.4 million years old, evolving from australopithecine ancestors with the appearance of Homo habilis. Specifically, H. habilis is assumed to be the direct descendant of Australopithecus garhi which lived about 2.5 million, which includes the modern human species, Homo sapiens Humans are known taxonomically as Homo sapiens , and are the only extant member of the Homo genus of bipedal primates in Hominidae, the great ape family. However, in some cases "human" is used to refer to any member of the genus Homo. The most famous fossil is the partial skeleton named Lucy Lucy (also given a second name: dinqineš, or “Dinkenesh,” meaning “You are beautiful” or "you are wonderful") is the common name of AL 288-1, the nearly 40% complete skeleton of an Australopithecus afarensis specimen discovered in 1974 at Hadar in the Awash Valley of Ethiopia's Afar Depression. Lucy is estimated to have lived 3.2 (3.2 million years old) by Donald Johanson and colleagues, after they played the Beatles song Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" is a song by English rock band The Beatles, written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney for the group's 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band over and over in celebration of their find.[1][2][3]

Contents

Localities

Australopithecus afarensis fossils have only been discovered within northern Africa North Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, linked by the Sahara to Sub-Saharan Africa. Geopolitically, the United Nations definition of Northern Africa includes seven countries or territories; Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Sudan, Tunisia, and Western Sahara Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Mauritania, and. Despite Laetoli being the type locality In some natural sciences, type locality — or type locale — is the typical or representative location and is typically the first example of a newly discovered or described object. Often it is namesake for the term for A. afarensis, the most extensive remains assigned to this species are found in Hadar, Afar Region Afar is one of the nine ethnic divisions (kililoch) of Ethiopia, and is the homeland of the Afar people. Formerly known as Region 2, its current capital is Asayita; a new capital named Semera on the paved Awash - Asseb highway is under construction of Ethiopia Ethiopia (Ge'ez: ኢትዮጵያ ʾĪtyōṗṗyā) is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa. Officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, it is the second-most populous nation in Africa with over 79.2 million people and the tenth-largest by area with its 1,100,000 km2. The capital is Addis Ababa. Ethiopia is, including the above-mentioned "Lucy" partial skeleton and the "First Family" found at the A.L. 333 locality. Other localities bearing A. afarensis remains include Omo, Maka, Fejej and Belohdelie in Ethiopia Ethiopia (Ge'ez: ኢትዮጵያ ʾĪtyōṗṗyā) is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa. Officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, it is the second-most populous nation in Africa with over 79.2 million people and the tenth-largest by area with its 1,100,000 km2. The capital is Addis Ababa. Ethiopia is, and Koobi Fora Koobi Fora refers primarily to a region around Koobi Fora Ridge, located on the eastern shore of Lake Turkana in the territory of the nomadic Gabbra people. According to the National Museums of Kenya, the name comes from the Gabbra language: and Lothagam in Kenya The Republic of Kenya is a country in East Africa. Lying along the Indian Ocean, at the equator, Kenya is bordered by Ethiopia (north), Somalia (northeast), Tanzania (south), Uganda plus Lake Victoria (west), and Sudan (northwest). Kenya has numerous wildlife reserves, containing thousands of animal species. The capital city is Nairobi. Kenya's.

Physical characteristics

Craniodental features and brain size

Australopithecus afarensis skull reconstruction, displayed at Museum of Man, San Diego, California San Diego , named after Saint Didacus (Spanish: Diego de Alcalá), is the ninth largest city in the United States, second-largest city in California and 46th largest city in the Americas. Located along the Pacific Ocean on the west coast of the United States, San Diego has a population of 1,279,329 (July 2008 estimate). This coastal city is also.

Compared to the modern and extinct great apes An ape is any member of the Hominoidea superfamily of primates, including humans. Due to its ambiguous nature, the term ape has been deemphasized in favor of Hominoidea as a means of describing taxonomic relationships, A. afarensis has reduced canines and molars, although they are still relatively larger than in modern humans. A. afarensis also has a relatively small brain size Neuroscience and intelligence concerns the various neurological factors that may be responsible for the variation of intelligence within a species or between different species. Much of the work in this field is concerned with the variation in human intelligence, but other intelligent species such as the non-human primates and cetaceans are also of (~380–430 cm³) and a prognathic face (i.e. projecting in the anterior direction).

The image of a bipedal Bipedalism is a form of terrestrial locomotion where an organism moves by means of its two rear limbs, or legs. An animal or machine that usually moves in a bipedal manner is known as a biped , meaning "two feet" (from the Latin bi for "two" and ped for "foot"). Types of bipedal movement include walking, running, or hominin with a small brain and primitive face was quite a revelation to the paleoanthropological world at the time. This was due to the earlier belief that an increase in brain size was the first major hominin adaptive shift. Before the discoveries of A. afarensis in the 1970s, it was widely thought that an increase in brain size preceded the shift to bipedal locomotion. This was mainly because the oldest known hominins at the time had relatively large brains (e.g. KNM-ER 1470, Homo rudolfensis Homo rudolfensis is a fossil human species discovered by Bernard Ngeneo, a member of a team led by anthropologist Richard Leakey and zoologist Meave Leakey in 1972, at Koobi Fora on the east side of Lake Rudolf in Kenya. The scientific name Homo rudolfensis was proposed in 1986 by V. P. Alekseyev for the specimen Skull 1470 (KNM ER 1470). Skull 147, which was found just a few years before Lucy and had a cranial capacity of ~800 cm³).

There is considerable debate regarding the locomotor behaviour of A. afarensis. Some believe that A. afarensis was almost exclusively bipedal, while others believe that the creatures were partly arboreal. The anatomy of the hands, feet and shoulder joints in many ways favour the latter interpretation. The curvature of the finger and toe bones (Phalanges In anatomy, phalanx bones are those that form the fingers and toes. In primates such as humans and monkeys, the thumb and big toe have two phalanges, while the other fingers and toes consist of three. Phalanges are classified as long bones) approaches that of modern-day apes, and is most likely reflective of their ability to efficiently grasp branches and climb.

Lucy skeleton reconstruction. Cleveland Natural History Museum. Foot remains of Australopithecus.

There are a number of traits in the A. afarensis skeleton which strongly reflect bipedalism, to the extent that some researchers have suggested that bipedality evolved long before A. afarensis.[4] In overall anatomy, the pelvis is far more human-like than ape-like. The iliac blades are short and wide, the sacrum is wide and positioned directly behind the hip joint, and there is clear evidence of a strong attachment for the knee extensors The Rectus femoris muscle is one of the four quadriceps muscles of the human body. (The others are the vastus medialis, the vastus intermedius , and the vastus lateralis. All four combine to form the quadriceps tendon, which inserts into the patella and continues as the patellar ligament.). While the pelvis In human anatomy, the pelvis is the part of the trunk inferioposterior (below-behind) to the abdomen in the transition area between the trunk (torso) and the lower limbs (legs). The term is used to denote several structures: is not wholly human-like (being markedly wide with flared with laterally orientated iliac blades), these features point to a structure that can be considered radically remodeled to accommodate a significant degree of bipedalism Bipedalism is a form of terrestrial locomotion where an organism moves by means of its two rear limbs, or legs. An animal or machine that usually moves in a bipedal manner is known as a biped , meaning "two feet" (from the Latin bi for "two" and ped for "foot"). Types of bipedal movement include walking, running, or in the animals' locomotor repertoire. Importantly, the femur The femur, or thigh bone, is the most proximal bone of the leg in vertebrates capable of walking or jumping, such as most land mammals, birds, many reptiles such as lizards, and amphibians such as frogs. In vertebrates with four legs such as dogs and horses, the femur is found only in the rear legs also angles in toward the knee The knee joint joins the thigh with the leg and consists of two articulations: one between the femur and tibia, and one between the femur and patella. It is the largest joint in the human body and is very complicated. The knee is a mobile trocho-ginglymus , which permits flexion and extension as well as a slight medial and lateral rotation. Since from the hip In vertebrate anatomy, hip refer to either an anatomical region or a joint. This trait would have allowed the foot The foot is an anatomical structure found in many vertebrates. It is the terminal portion of a limb which bears weight and allows locomotion. In many animals with feet, the foot is a separate organ at the terminal part of the leg made up of one or more segments or bones, generally including claws or nails to have fallen closer to the midline of the body, and is a strong indication of habitual bipedal locomotion. Along with humans Humans are a species of animal known taxonomically as Homo sapiens , and are the only extant member of the Homo genus of bipedal primates in Hominidae, the great ape family. However, in some cases "human" is used to refer to any member of the genus Homo, present day orangutans The orangutans are the only exclusively Asian living genus of great ape. They are among the most intelligent primates and use a variety of sophisticated tools, also making sleeping nests each night from branches and foliage. They are generally not aggressive and live a mostly solitary life foraging for food. They are the largest living arboreal and spider monkeys possess this same feature. The feet also feature adducted big toes, making it difficult if not impossible to grasp branches with the hindlimbs. The loss of a grasping hindlimb also increases the risk of an infant being dropped or falling, as primates typically hold onto their mothers while the mother goes about her daily business. Without the second set of grasping limbs, the infant cannot maintain as strong a grip, and likely had to be held with help from the mother. The problem of holding the infant would be multiplied if the mother also had to climb trees. Bones of the foot (such as the calcaneus In humans, the calcaneus or heel bone is a bone of the tarsus of the foot which constitute the heel. In some other animals, it is the point of the hock) also indicate bipedality.[5][6]

A reconstruction of a female Australopithecus afarensis

Computer simulations using dynamic modelling of the skeleton's inertial properties Moment of inertia, also called mass moment of inertia, rotational inertia, or the angular mass, is a measure of an object's resistance to changes in its rotation rate. It is the rotational analog of mass, the inertia of a rigid rotating body with respect to its rotation. The moment of inertia plays much the same role in rotational dynamics as mass and kinematics Kinematics is the branch of classical mechanics that describes the motion of objects without consideration of the causes leading to the motion have indicated that A. afarensis was able to walk in the same way modern humans walk, with a normal erect gait or with bent hips and knees, but could not walk in the same way as chimpanzees Chimpanzee, sometimes colloquially chimp, is the common name for the two extant species of ape in the genus Pan. The Congo River forms the boundary between the native habitat of the two species:. The upright gait would have been much more efficient than the bent knee and hip walking, which would have taken twice as much energy.[7][8] It appears probable that A. afarensis was quite an efficient bipedal walker over short distances, and the spacing of the footprints at Laetoli indicates that they were walking at 1.0 m/s or above, which matches human small-town walking speeds.[9] Yet, this can be questioned, as finds of Australopithecus foot bones indicate that the Laetoli footprints may not have been made by Australopithecus.[10] Many scientists also doubt the suggestion of bipedalism, and argue that even if Australopithecus really did walk on two legs, it did not walk in the same way as a human.[11][12][13]

On the other hand, the presence of a wrist-locking mechanism might suggest that they engaged in knuckle-walking Knuckle-walking is a form of quadrupedal walking in which the forelimbs hold the fingers in a partially flexed posture that allows body weight to press down on the ground through the knuckles.[14] (However, these conclusions have been questioned on the basis of close analysis of knuckle-walking and the comparison of wrist bones in different species of primates).[15] The shoulder joint is also oriented more cranially (i.e. towards the skull) than in modern humans. Combined with the relatively long arms A. afarensis are thought to have had, this is thought by many to be reflective of a heightened ability to use the arm above the head in climbing behaviour. Furthermore, scans of the skulls reveal a canal and bony labyrinth morphology, which is not supportive to proper bipedal locomotion.[16]

It is commonly thought that upright bipedal walking evolved from knuckle-walking with bent legs, in the manner used by chimpanzees and gorillas Gorillas are the largest of the living primates. They are ground-dwelling and predominantly herbivorous. They inhabit the forests of central Africa. Gorillas are divided into two species and either four or five subspecies. The DNA of gorillas is 98%–99% identical to that of a human, and they are the next closest living relatives to humans after to move around on the ground, but fossils such as Orrorin tugenensis Orrorin tugenensis is considered to be the second-oldest known hominin ancestor that is possibly related to modern humans, and it is the only species classified in genus Orrorin. The name was given by the discoverers who found Orrorin fossils in the Tugen Hills of Kenya. By using radiometric dating techniques, the volcanic tuffs and lavas, faunal indicate bipedalism around 5 to 8 million years ago, in the same general period when genetic studies suggest the lineage of chimpanzees and humans diverged. Modern apes and their fossil ancestors show skeletal adaptations to an upright posture used in tree climbing, and it has been proposed that upright, straight-legged walking originally evolved as an adaptation to tree-dwelling. Studies of modern orangutans The orangutans are the only exclusively Asian living genus of great ape. They are among the most intelligent primates and use a variety of sophisticated tools, also making sleeping nests each night from branches and foliage. They are generally not aggressive and live a mostly solitary life foraging for food. They are the largest living arboreal in Sumatra Sumatra is an island in western Indonesia, westernmost of the Sunda Islands. It is the largest island entirely in Indonesia (two larger islands, Borneo and New Guinea, are shared between Indonesia and other countries), and the sixth largest island in the world at approximately 470,000 km² with a population of 45,000,000. Its biggest city is Medan have shown these apes using four legs when walking on large stable branches and when swinging underneath slightly smaller branches, but are bipedal and maintain their legs very straight when using multiple small flexible branches under 4 cm. in diameter while also using their arms for balance and additional support. This enables them to get nearer to the edge of the tree canopy to grasp fruit or cross to another tree.

Climate changes around 11 to 12 million years ago affected forests in East and Central Africa, establishing periods where openings prevented travel through the tree canopy, and during these times ancestral hominids could have adapted the upright walking behaviour for ground travel, while the ancestors of gorillas and chimpanzees became more specialised in climbing vertical tree trunks or lianas with a bent hip and bent knee posture, ultimately leading them to use the related knuckle-walking posture for ground travel. This would lead to A. afarensis usage of upright bipedalism for ground travel, while still having arms well adapted for climbing smaller trees. However, chimpanzees and gorillas are the closest living relatives to humans, and share anatomical features including a fused wrist bone which may also suggest knuckle-walking by human ancestors.[17][18][19] Other studies suggest that an upright spine and a primarily vertical body plan in primates dates back to Morotopithecus bishopi in the Early Miocene of 21.6 million years ago.[20][21] the earliest humanlike primates. Known from fossil remains found in Africa, australopithecines, or australopiths, represent the group from which the ancestors of modern humans emerged. As generally used, the term australopithecines covers all early human fossils dated from about 7 million to 2.5 million years ago, and some of those dated from 2.5 million to 1.4 million years ago. The group became extinct after that time.

At some time before about 2.5 million years ago, a currently unknown australopithecine species gave rise to the ancestor of our own genus Homo. The earliest members of Homo resembled late australopiths, and coexisted with them for more than a million years, but the Homo species had larger brains.[citation needed]

Australopiths evolved from apes and had a combination of apelike and humanlike traits. Their faces protruded like those of apes, and they probably had a similar amount of body hair. However, several traits distinguished australopithecines from the apes. First, australopiths are believed to have walked upright on two legs most of the time—a practice known as bipedalism—instead of using all four limbs for locomotion. In addition, australopiths had smaller canine teeth than those of apes. Studies of australopith hand bones suggest that at least one species could have made the earliest stone tools around 2.5 million years ago.[citation needed] However, some scientists believe only members of the larger-brained genus Homo would have had the mental capacity and hand manipulation skills needed to make these tools (see Stone Age).

Scientists have identified many australopithecine species. Some of these are classified in the genus Australopithecus (meaning “southern ape”). Other australopithecines belong to different genera, including Sahelanthropus, Orrorin, Ardipithecus, Kenyanthropus, and, by some classifications, Paranthropus.

Social characteristics

Australopithecus afarensis reconstruction

It is difficult to reconstruct the social behaviour of extinct fossil species. However, the social structure is likely to be comparable to some extent to that of modern apes and monkeys, given the average difference in body size between males and females (known as sexual dimorphism). Although there is considerable debate over how large the degree of sexual dimorphism was between males and females of A. afarensis, it is likely that males were relatively larger than females. If observations on the relationship between sexual dimorphism and social group structure from modern great apes are applied to A. afarensis then these creatures most likely lived in small family groups containing a single dominant male and a number of breeding females.[22]

There are no known stone tools associated with A. afarensis, and the present archeological record of stone artifacts only dates back to approximately 2.5 million years ago.[23]

Lineage questions

In 1977, Donald Johanson and his colleague Tim White carried out detailed morphological In biology "morphology" is the study of the form, structure and configuration of an organism. This includes aspects of the outward appearance [citation needed] as well as the form and structure of the internal parts like bones and organs. This is in contrast to physiology, which deals primarily with function studies on their finds to date, including both Lucy Lucy (also given a second name: dinqineš, or “Dinkenesh,” meaning “You are beautiful” or "you are wonderful") is the common name of AL 288-1, the nearly 40% complete skeleton of an Australopithecus afarensis specimen discovered in 1974 at Hadar in the Awash Valley of Ethiopia's Afar Depression. Lucy is estimated to have lived 3.2 and the "First Family" fossils. They compared the fossils to chimpanzee Chimpanzee, sometimes colloquially chimp, is the common name for the two extant species of ape in the genus Pan. The Congo River forms the boundary between the native habitat of the two species:, gorilla Gorillas are the largest of the living primates. They are ground-dwelling and predominantly herbivorous. They inhabit the forests of central Africa. Gorillas are divided into two species and either four or five subspecies. The DNA of gorillas is 98%–99% identical to that of a human, and they are the next closest living relatives to humans after and modern human specimens, and casts of extinct hominid The Hominidae form a taxonomic family, including four extant genera: chimpanzees, gorillas, humans, and orangutans fossils, with particular attention to jaws and dental arcades, and found that their fossils were somewhere between humans and great apes, possibly closer to apes, though with essentially human bodies. They reached the conclusion that it could not be classified in the genus Homo Homo is the genus that includes modern humans and species closely related to them. The genus is estimated to be about 2.3 to 2.4 million years old, evolving from australopithecine ancestors with the appearance of Homo habilis. Specifically, H. habilis is assumed to be the direct descendant of Australopithecus garhi which lived about 2.5 million and should be in the genus Australopithecus Australopithecus is a genus of hominids that are now extinct. From the evidence gathered by palaeontologists and archaeologists, it appears that the Australopithecus genus evolved in eastern Africa around 4 million years ago before spreading throughout the continent and eventually becoming extinct 2 million years ago. During this time period, as the new species Australopithecus afarensis. They believed that this extinct hominid The Hominidae form a taxonomic family, including four extant genera: chimpanzees, gorillas, humans, and orangutans would prove to be ancestral to Australopithecus robustus and Australopithecus africanus Australopithecus africanus was an early hominid, an australopithecine, who lived between 2–3 million years ago in the Pliocene. In common with the older Australopithecus afarensis, A. africanus was slenderly built, or gracile, and was thought to have been a direct ancestor of modern humans. Fossil remains indicate that A. africanus was which is thought to be an ancestor of Homo that includes the modern human species, Homo sapiens Humans are known taxonomically as Homo sapiens , and are the only extant member of the Homo genus of bipedal primates in Hominidae, the great ape family. However, in some cases "human" is used to refer to any member of the genus Homo,[24] and this conclusion was widely accepted.[23] However, in 2006 scientists Yoel Rak, Avishag Ginzburg, and Eli Geffen carried out a morphological analysis which found that the mandibular ramus (jawbone) of Australopithecus afarensis specimen A. L. 822-1 discovered in 2002 is robust , and from further studies they concluded that "australopithecus afarensis" is more likely an ancestor of only the robust australopithecines branch of the hominid evolutionary tree, and not an ancestor of the Australopithecus africanus branch, so not a direct ancestor of man. They concluded that Ardipithecus ramidus Ardipithecus is a very early hominin genus. Two species are described in the literature: A. ramidus, which lived about 4.4 million years ago during the early Pliocene, and A. kadabba, dated to approximately 5.6 million years ago discovered by White and colleagues in the 1990s is a more likely ancestor of the human clade A clade[note 1] is a group consisting of an organism and all its descendants. In the terms of biological systematics, a clade is a single "branch" on the "tree of life". The idea that such a "natural group" of organisms should be grouped together and given a taxonomic name is central to biological classification. In.[25]

Notable fossils

Type specimen

The type specimen for A. afarensis is LH 4, an adult mandible from the site of Laetoli, Tanzania.[26]

AL 129-1

Main article: AL 129-1

The first A. afarensis knee joint was discovered in November 1973 by Donald Johanson as part of a team involving Maurice Taieb, Yves Coppens and Tim White in the Middle Awash of Ethiopia's Afar Depression.

AL 288-1 (Lucy)

Main article: Lucy (Australopithecus) Picture of Lucy remains replica, Museo Nacional de Antropología, Mexico City

The first A. afarensis skeleton was discovered on November 24, 1974 near Hadar in Ethiopia by Tom Gray in the company of Donald Johanson, as part of a team involving Maurice Taieb, Yves Coppens and Tim White in the Middle Awash of Ethiopia's Afar Depression.

Site 333

Main article: AL 333

Michael Bush, one of Don Johanson's students, made another major discovery in 1975: near Lucy, on the other side of the hill, he found the "First Family", including 200 fragments of A. afarensis. The site of the findings is now known as "site 333", by a count of fossil fragments uncovered, such as teeth and pieces of jaw. 13 individuals were uncovered and all were adults, with no injuries caused by carnivores. All 13 individuals seemed to have died at the same time, thus Johanson concluded that they might have been killed instantly from a flash flood.

Selam

Main article: Selam (Australopithecus) Selam or DIK 1-1

On September 20, 2006, Scientific American magazine presented the findings of a dig in Dikika, Ethiopia, a few miles from the place where Lucy was found. The recovered skeleton of a 3-year-old A. afarensis girl comprises almost the entire skull and torso, and most parts of the limbs. The features of the skeleton suggest adaptation to walking upright (bipedalism) as well as tree-climbing, features that match the skeletal features of Lucy and fall midway between human and humanoid ape anatomy. "Baby Lucy" has officially been named "Selam" (meaning peace in most Ethiopian languages).[27]

Others

Related work

Further findings at Afar, including the many hominin bones in site 333, produced more bones of concurrent date, and led to Johanson and White's eventual argument that the Koobi Fora hominins were concurrent with the Afar hominins. In other words, Lucy was not unique in evolving bipedalism and a flat face.

Recently, an entirely new species has been discovered, called Kenyanthropus platyops, however the cranium KNM WT 40000 has a much distorted matrix making it hard to distinguish (however a flat face is present). This had many of the same characteristics as Lucy, but is possibly an entirely different genus.

Another species, called Ardipithecus ramidus, was found by White and colleagues in the 1990s. This was fully bipedal, yet appears to have been contemporaneous with a woodland environment. Scientists have not yet been able to draw an estimation of the cranial capacity of Ar. ramidus as only small jaw and leg fragments have been discovered thus far.

See also

Paleontology portal

References

  1. ^ Johanson & Maitland 1981, pp. 283–297
  2. ^ Johanson, D.C. (2009). "Lucy (Australopithecus afarensis)". in Michael Ruse & Joseph Travis. Evolution: The First Four Billion Years. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. pp. 693–697. ISBN 978-0-674-03175-3.
  3. ^ Wood, B.A. (1994). "Evolution of australopithecines". in Jones, S., Martin, R., & Pilbeam, D.. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Human Evolution. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press. p. 234. ISBN 0-521-3270-3. Also ISBN 0-521-46786-1 (paperback)
  4. ^ Lovejoy, C. Owen (1988). "Evolution of Human walking". Scientific American 259 (5): 82–89. http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/krigbaum/proseminar/Lovejoy_1988_SA.pdf.
  5. ^ Weiss, M.L., & Mann, A.E. (1985). Human Biology and Behaviour: An anthropological perspective (4th ed). Boston: Little Brown. ISBN 0-673-39013-6.
  6. ^ Latimer, B., & Lovejoy, C.O. (1989). "The Calcaneus of Australopithecus afarensis and its implications for the Evolution of Bipedality". American Journal of Physical Anthropology 78 (3): 369–386. doi:10.1002/ajpa.1330780306. PMID 2929741.
  7. ^ "BBC - Science & Nature - The evolution of man". Mother of man - 3.2 million years ago. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/prehistoric_life/human/human_evolution/mother_of_man1.shtml. Retrieved 2007-11-01.
  8. ^ "PREMOG - Research". How Lucy walked. Primate Evolution & Morphology Group (PREMOG), the Department of Human Anatomy and Cell Biology, the School of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Liverpool. 18 May 2007. http://www.liv.ac.uk/premog/premog-research.htm#backevidence. Retrieved 2007-11-01.
  9. ^ "PREMOG - Supplementry Info". The Laetoli Footprint Trail: 3D reconstruction from texture; archiving, and reverse engineering of early hominin gait. Primate Evolution & Morphology Group (PREMOG), the Department of Human Anatomy and Cell Biology, the School of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Liverpool. 18 May 2007. http://www.liv.ac.uk/premog/premog-sup-info-Laetoli.htm. Retrieved 2007-11-01.
  10. ^ Scientific American: Footprints to fill: Flat feet and doubts about the makers of the Laetoli tracks, 1 August 2005.
  11. ^ Shipman P, "Those Ears Were Made For Walking", New Scientist, 143 1994 p. 26-29.
  12. ^ Susman R. L & Stern J. T, "The Locomotor Anatomy of Australopithecus Afarensis", American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 60, 1983, p. 279-317.
  13. ^ Beardsley T, "These Feet Were Made dor Walking - and?", Scientific American, 273, 1995, p.19-20.
  14. ^ Richmond BG, Begun DR, Strait DS. (2001). Origin of human bipedalism: The knuckle-walking hypothesis revisited. Am J Phys Anthropol. Suppl 33:70-105. PMID 11786992
  15. ^ Kivell TL, Schmitt D. (2009).Independent evolution of knuckle-walking in African apes shows that humans did not evolve from a knuckle-walking ancestor. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. Aug 25;106(34):14241-6. PMID 19667206 doi:10.1073/pnas.0901280106
  16. ^ Zonneveld F, Spoor F & Wood B, 1994, "Implications of early homonid morphology for evolution of human bipedal locomotion", Nature 369 (6482), p. 645-648.
  17. ^ Ian Sample, science correspondent (June 1, 2007). "New theory rejects popular view of man's evolution - Research - EducationGuardian.co.uk". http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/research/story/0,,2093002,00.html. Retrieved 2007-11-05.
  18. ^ "BBC NEWS - Science/Nature - Upright walking 'began in trees'". 31 May 2007. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6709627.stm. Retrieved 2007-11-05.
  19. ^ Thorpe S.K.S.; Holder R.L., and Crompton R.H. (24 May 2007). "PREMOG - Supplementry Info". Origin of Human Bipedalism As an Adaptation for Locomotion on Flexible Branches. Primate Evolution & Morphology Group (PREMOG), the Department of Human Anatomy and Cell Biology, the School of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Liverpool. http://www.liv.ac.uk/premog/premog-sup-info-SCIENCE.htm. Retrieved 2007-11-01.
  20. ^ Aaron G. Filler (December 24, 2007). "Redefining the word “Human” – Do Some Apes Have Human Ancestors? : OUPblog". http://blog.oup.com/2007/12/human/#more-1425. Retrieved 2007-12-27.
  21. ^ Aaron G. Filler (October 10, 2007). "PLoS ONE: Homeotic Evolution in the Mammalia: Diversification of Therian Axial Seriation and the Morphogenetic Basis of Human Origins". http://www.plosone.org/article/fetchArticle.action?articleURI=info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0001019. Retrieved 2007-12-27.
  22. ^ Wood, B.A.(1994) p.239
  23. ^ a b Jones, S., Martin, R., & Pilbeam, D., ed (1994). The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Human Evolution. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-3270-3. Also ISBN 0-521-46786-1 (paperback)
  24. ^ Johanson & Maitland 1981, pp. 265–266, 278–279, 283–297
  25. ^ Rak, Y.; Ginzburg, A.; Geffen, E. (2007). "Gorilla-like anatomy on Australopithecus afarensis mandibles suggests Au. Afarensis link to robust australopiths". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 104: 6568. doi:10.1073/pnas.0606454104.
  26. ^ Larry L Mai; Marcus Young Owl; M Patricia Kersting (2005). The Cambridge Dictionary of Human Biology and Evolution. Cambridge & New York: Cambridge University Press. p. 45. ISBN 978-0-521-66486-8
  27. ^ Wong, Kate (2006-09-20). "Lucy's Baby: An extraordinary new human fossil comes to light". Scientific American. http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa003&articleID=00076C1D-62D1-1511-A2D183414B7F0000.

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Part of the series on Human evolution
Hominini
Sahelanthropus tchadensis · Orrorin tugenensis · Ardipithecus · Kenyanthropus platyops
Australopithecines
Australopithecus: A. anamensis · A. afarensis · A. bahrelghazali · A. africanus · A. garhi · A. sediba Paranthropus: P. aethiopicus · P. boisei · P. robustus
Humans and Proto-humans
Homo: H. habilis · H. rudolfensis · H. gautengensis · H. georgicus · H. ergaster · H. erectus (H. e. lantianensis · H. e. palaeojavanicus · H. e. pekinensis · H. e. nankinensis · H. e. wushanensis · H. e. yuanmouensis · H. e. soloensis) · H. cepranensis · H. antecessor · H. heidelbergensis · Denisova hominin · H. neanderthalensis · H. rhodesiensis · H. floresiensis · Archaic Homo sapiens · Anatomically modern humans (H. s. idaltu · H. s. sapiens)
Topics: Timeline of human evolution · List of human evolution fossils · Human evolutionary genetics Models: Recent African origin · Multiregional origin

Categories: Hominina | Pliocene mammals | Fossil taxa described in 1978

 

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Wed, 30 Dec 2009 11:41:24 GM

Bonobos or pygmy chimpanzees are interesting since there are similarities in overall body proportion to early hominin species such as . Australopithecu​s afarensis. . Their society is more female centred and egalitarian than chimpanzees in ...

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