...Australopithecus afarensis is one of the longest lived and as well-known early human species—paleoanthropologists have uncovered remains from more than 300 individuals. Found between 3.85 and 2.95 million years ago in Eastern Africa, this species survived for more than 900,000 years, which is over four times as long as our own species has been around. Australopithecus afarensis is very similar aspect of both modern chimpanzee and human. The first and most important is that physical characteristics of modern chimpanzees has same and different point from Australopithecus afarensis. According to “Exploring Biological Anthropology” Craig Stanford, John S. Allen, and Susan C. Anton say that in 1974 Donald Johanson and his team discovered Lucy, the famed skeleton of Australopithecus afarensis. She stood a little over a meter tall and possessed a cranial vault suggesting a modest brain size about equal to that of an adult chimpanzee. The cranium and teeth of afarensis are intermediate in appearance of a modern chimpanzee. The cranial capacity is small but slightly larger than that of a modern chimpanzee. The afarensis face was prognathic, but not so much as in the modern chimnpanzee, and the cranial base was relatively flat, similar to that of modern chimpanzee. Cranial crests, flanges of...
Words: 826 - Pages: 4
...Haydee Munoz 01063896 ANT2033 15- April-2010 Physioanatomical Analysis of Australopithecus Afarensis The first Australopithecus afarensis was found in 1974 by Don Johanson at Hadar in Ethiopia, Africa, and dates from about 3.9 to 3 million years ago. The very complete fossil is thought to be a female skeleton and it is called “Lucy” after a Beatles song. Because the skeleton is 40 percent complete, it facilitates a more accurate analysis in a broader sense. When comparing A. afarensis to a chimpanzee, a species with many traits that for hominins are considered primitive, and a modern human, it is concluded that the subject is very primitive, because it shows few developed traits. The Lucy skeleton is female and it is approximately 3 or 4 feet tall, while other A. afarensis male fossils have been found that are about 5 feet tall. While male chimpanzees average height is 4 feet tall and female average height is 3 feet tall, the male human height average is 5 feet 9 inches and the female average is 5 feet 3 inches. Therefore, like chimpanzees, Australopithecus afarensis has smaller body size than the modern human. Also, A. afarensis is sexually dimorphic, which is a trait that is common for attraction and reproduction among apes, while humans are not very different in body size among sexes. One of the most characteristic derived traits of modern humans is brain size. Modern humans have between 1150 to 1750 cm3, chimpanzees have 285 to 500 cm3, and A. afarensis...
Words: 1576 - Pages: 7
...Selection in Relation to Sex, Charles Darwin speculated that fossils of the earliest humans and their immediate progenitors ultimately would be found somewhere in Africa. He based this on the fact that the natural range of our nearest living relatives, chimpanzees and gorillas, is limited to Africa. He concluded that we ultimately must have shared a now extinct common ancestor with those apes in Africa. This view was mostly rejected by the scientific world of the time (http://anthro.palomar.edu/hominid/australo_1.htm). It would be some 50 years and the unearthing of Australopithicus africanus in 1924, before advances would be made in understanding our ancestors. In 1974 an exciting discovery was made in the finding of ‘Lucy’ (Australopithecus afarensis) by Professor Johanson and his student Gray in northern Ethiopia. We discovered the most complete specimen of A afarensis ever found (Boyle and Senior 2008). They are one of the first of our ancestors to stand and walk upright on two legs, this is referred to as ‘bipedalism’. It is believed that A aferensis would not have walked straight legged as we do, though are more likely to have walked with bent knees and hips, not unlike chimps. Diagram sourced from http://humanorigins.si.edu Diagram sourced from http://humanorigins.si.edu A aferensis, is dated around 3.2million years ago, it was 5 million years prior to this, that there was huge ecological changes. The dense rain forest that covered the majority of Africa...
Words: 1186 - Pages: 5
...ARDI: ARDI: 1. Ardipithecus ramidus dates back about ______ years. Answer: Ardipithecus ramidus dates back some 4.4 million years ago. 2. A big difference between Ardipithecus and Australopithecus was: (compare the diagrams of Australopithecus skulls, jaws, teeth, pelvises and feet) Answer: Skeleton majorDifferences | Ardipithecus | Australopithecus | Skulls | Ardipithecus skull rests atop the spinal column, indicating this species was bipedal, although it probably walked in a slightly different manner than humans. | -The dark area at the bottom of the skull is the foramen magnum, the hole through which the spinal column passes. It has a forward position in australopithecine skulls | Jaws | -Ardipithecus has rectangular shape of ape jaws. | -Their jaw has the parabolic shape of human jaws. | Teeth | They have large canine teeth. | -The teeth of australopithecines are similar to those of humans.-They do not have the large canine teeth of apes | Pelvises | -Their pelvis has a mix of features useful for both climbing and upright walking and suggests the species still spent significant time in the trees.-The lower pelvis is large and the angle of the ischial surface does not face upward as it does in humans and Australopithecus. | -Australopithecine pelvises are far more similar to humans than to those of apes, and shows that they were undoubtedly bipedal.- Despite the overall similarity, australopithecine pelvises are not identical to those of humans | Feet | The...
Words: 846 - Pages: 4
...in a deep way, It can give us the true account of our origins, replacing myths that satisfied us for thousands of years. How did we get here? Where did we come from? Who made us what we are today? These are questions that are still asked today and conflict over what is the truth. We shall be looking at the characteristics that have shaped who we are today and how these have changed in our genetic DNA. Is it all down to science or are the religious believers right? For many years there has been a lot of dispute as to how we are here. Some believe the ‘Great Creator’ is the reason, others believe the scientific theory. There is a lot more evidence to support the scientific theory. The start of this evidence is from when the first Australopithecus afarensis bones were discovered in 1974 by Archaeologists Don Johnson and Tom Gray. They looked at the structure of the bones and could see they were of a female sex from how wide the pelvic area was. They named her ‘Lucy’. They looked at the layer of silt and sands these bones were found in to determine the age of these bones and discovered there were around Three and a half million years ago, which meant these were the first humanoid bones that first walked upright on two legs to be found from that period of time.. All this evidence found supported the early Geologist Charles Darwin’s theory that man and ape have a common ancestor. It was this man Darwin, who caused a lot of controversy in society many years earlier about how we...
Words: 1123 - Pages: 5
...include smaller diamond shaped canines and some evidence of upright walking. There is a possibility that it is a descendant from an earlier species named, Ardipithecus kadabba. The fossils collected were that of a female, which is known as “Ardi”. The partial skeleton of “Ardi” is combined of both human and other primate traits. Her pelvis was shorter than other apes which indicate she could have possible been able to walk bipedally and she had a grasping big toe for moving throughout trees. Based on the skeleton, scientists have predicted the average height of “Ardi” was 3ft 11inches and her weight was approximately 110lbs. Scientists believe that the Ardipithecus ramidus species were omnivores based on the enamel of their teeth. Australopithecus anamensis was discovered in 1994. The history of this species began in the year 1965 when a research team led by Bryan Peterson from Harvard University found what appeared to be a single arm bone of an early human at a site of Kanapoi in northern Kenya. Patterson was unable to identify what species it belonged to due to the lack of additional fossils. In 1994, paleoanthropologist Meave Leakey and her team found large amounts of bone fragments and teeth at the exact same site where Patterson and his team had found the single arm bone. Leakey and her team determined the fossils were those of a very primitive hominin and...
Words: 1581 - Pages: 7
...Mary and Louis Leakey were named two of the foremost fossil hunters of the twentieth centaury. They are archeologists (scientists who study the remains of ancient human cultures) who made many discoveries. They are known for their many discoveries relating to early human evolution. The Leakey’s' findings suggested that human life originated in Africa and greatly expanded modern understandings of evolution (the theory that living organisms developed slowly over long periods of time). In 1936 Mary and Louis married, and moved to Kenya Africa to begin their work in finding the fossils that eventually made them famous archeologists. In 1948 Mary and Louis came upon more than thirty fragments of the skull of an apelike creature. The scientists came to the conclusion that this “creature” was a common ancestor of both apes and humans that lived up to 40,000,000 years ago! Mary Leakey discovered the first specimen of paranthropus boisei, a well-preserved cranium, on July 17, 1959, at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania. Not only was this skull the first strong and healthy australopithecine (Southern apes , but not simply apes because they were bipedal) ever found, this skull also did so much in convincing the scientific world that Darwin and Raymond Dart (Two other archeologists) had been right about their claims of Africa being the earliest scene of human evolution. Another fossil discovered by Mary and Louis nearby was named "Able Man" (or Homo Habilis) because the hominid had used stone...
Words: 528 - Pages: 3
...Human Fossil Report your name here Part I. Comparison Chart (roman numeral) = Name 1 = Genus and species 2 = Time frame and Location 3 = Brain Size 4 = Physical characteristics 5 = Height and weight 6 = Cultural -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I. Homo neanderthalensis 1. Homo, H neanderthalsensis 2. 400,000 - 40,000 years ago, Europe and southwestern to central asia 3. brains that were just as large as a human and often larger 4. features included their skulls having a large middle part of the face, angled cheek bones, and a huge nose for humidifying and warming cold, dry air. Their oval shaped skulls had a low, receding forehead and distinct browridges, with thick, strong bones. Their bodies were shorter and stockier than ours, another adaptation to living in cold environments. Their large skulls indicated brains that were just as large as ours and often larger. 5. Males average 5 ft 5 in (164 cm). Females average 5 ft 1 in (155 cm). Males average 143 lbs (65 kg). Females average 119 lbs (54 kg). 6. They created and used sophisticated tools, controlled fire, lived in shelters, made and wore clothing, as well as were skilled hunters of large animals. They also ate plants as food and occasionally made symbolic or ornamental objects. There is evidence that they deliberately buried their dead and occasionally even marked their graves with offerings such as flowers...
Words: 1303 - Pages: 6
...also had smaller teeth then the other skulls. Where the skin may have once stretched across that face this frontal part of the skull lacked the prominent brow ridges and other protrusion and curves that the other skull had. This indicated to also the presences of a high fore head in so far that the fore head was future away for the skull then the others. These features lead me to conclude that this skull was that of Homo sapiens. The next skull I could identify was cranium F. This skull according to the card was “found in East Africa”. “Dates from 2.2 million years ago to 1.3 million years ago.” Thick enamel”, “diet most likely included seed, tubers, roots. “Small brain size (530 cardinal capacity).” I identified this skull with Australopithecus Africans. This skull seemed to have teeth more like the Homo sapiens skull. This skull was rounded on the top with what looked to be a projecting face away...
Words: 956 - Pages: 4
...recognized as the process of producing and distributing information, ideas, opinions, values and entertainment from a single, but regularly difficult, organization or source, through print or electronic channels, to large numbers of people. Mass communication channels or media include newspapers, magazines, books, radio, television, film, sound recordings and the Internet. Over the past four centuries mass communication has gained in importance and influence. It is an essential building block in the construction of human culture and civilization. Communication is essential for nourishing and transmitting culture, sharing knowledge, entertaining, envisioning futures, and motivating action. From the emergence of our earliest ancestor Australopithecus Africanus about five million years ago in Africa, the human species has used its ability to communicate to survive in harsh environments and populate planet Earth. The ability to communicate facilitated the sharing of information on food sources, contributed to the security of the species, and provided tools for articulating relationships between and among different groups of humans. Archeologists and anthropologists have concluded that the development of signs, signals and speech among proto-humans and early humans was in response to the need to store memory and distribute knowledge – a prerequisite for the survival of the species. Communication is essential to social and political organization, and it is influential in the construction...
Words: 252 - Pages: 2
...Early Hominin Species Hominin is used to refer to members consisted in the family of humans. These species are thought to have existed over 30 or 40 million years ago. An example of one of the early species is Australopithecus afarensis. A. afarensis is believed to have existed between 3.7-3.0 million years ago in east Africa. Their skeleton was transitional from the earlier species of ape since their face was apelike with a low forehead, a flat nose, a bony ridge on the eyes and had no chin. Their jaws were protruding and they had large back teeth. Its brain size ranged between 390 and 515cc. Their skull looked similar to that of the chimpanzee but their teeth looked more like those of humans. Their canine teeth were smaller and blunt than those of apes but larger and pointed than those of humans. Their molar teeth were large and had thick enamel. This suggests that they ate hard foods that required a lot of chewing. The shape of the jaw is between the parabolic shape of humans and the rectangular shape of apes. Their pelvis was bowl shaped which indicate that they were bipedal. Their legs were shorter and they were more adapted to walking than running (Leakey 1994). Their first toe was in line with the other toes (Ward, 2002; Harcourt-Smith and Aiello, 2004). Their forearm, toes and fingers were long and curved which suggests that they used trees regularly to forage and to refuge from predators at night. Their body size was small. Males weighed about 40kgs and...
Words: 311 - Pages: 2
...Raymond Arthur Dart, born in 1893 in Queensland, Australia, was a neuroanatomist and a paleoanthropologist. He was most famous for discovering the Taung Child. His discoveries of fossil hominins (members of the human lineage) led to important insights into human evolution. He was raised on a dairy farm near Laidley, attended Toowong and Blenheim state and Ipswich Grammar schools. He graduated from the University of Queensland with first-class honours in biology, and studied medicine at University of Sydney. He acted vice-principal of St. Andrew’s College in 1917. He was a medical officer at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, and as a captain in the Australian Army Medical Corps, served in England and France. In England, Dart took a post at University College, London, as senior demonstrator in anatomy. Then, he spent a year on Rockefeller Foundation fellowship in USA. He married to Dora Tyree, an instructor in anatomy, in 1921. In January 1923, he moved to South Africa, as a professor of anatomy at The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. In November 1924 Dart was given a fossil skull that had been found recently at Taungs. He extracted the fossil from the hard matrix and found that the skull was a child’s. It was a mixture of apish and human features. Its teeth were human-like while its brain was the size of an ape’s. Raymond Dart had found the missing link in the man-ape line of evolution. He died on 22nd November 1988 at the age of 95 in Reno, Nevada. I am interested...
Words: 1410 - Pages: 6
...Whenever people find new fossils, especially paleoanthropologist, they get excited and want to look for more to know about the mysterious history of life on earth. Finally, in November 30, 1974, one lucky paleoanthropologist, Donald Johanson and his co-worker Tom Gray found my fossil at Hadar, Ethiopia. From now on people could know that I existed once on this earth a long time ago. I say lucky, because my body was covered by tons of volcanic ash and mud for millions of years, but Hadar’s long rain washed off the dust from my body. That kind of rain does not often happen in Hadar. I was a new species of Australopithecus afarensis and extinct hominid that lived between 3.9 and 2.9 million years ago. Donald Johanson and his co-workers were very happy and did not sleep that night. They had been playing the Beatle’s song Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds over and over again at their camp. So I had been named Lucy and gave more insight to the evolution of humans and apes. The scientists are not really sure about what I was; human or ape. I had a low forehead, a bony ridge over the eyes, a flat nose, no chin, more humanlike teeth, pelvis and leg bones that resembled those of modern man. My body was smaller than my male friends and the relationship of sexual dimorphism and social group structure was like a modern ape. My father had a number of wives and lived in family groups. It was not like then gorillas; more sexually dimorphic than humans or chimpanzees. Scientists assume I lost of...
Words: 698 - Pages: 3
...will explain who found Lucy, where she was discovered, and when she was uncovered. I will then write about Lucy herself. I will describe her age, size, and how her gender was determined. Last but not least, I will explain how we know Lucy is a hominid, where she lies in the hominid line, and the significance of Lucy’s discovery to anthropology. Lucy On the morning of November 24th, 1974, Dr. Donald Johanson found the remains of a hominid that would shake the world of anthropology. Then a University professor, Johanson was on an expedition to Hadar, Ethiopia. Although this site was a proven haven of early fossil remains, Johanson had no idea he was about to make the discovery of a lifetime. Dr. Donald Johanson’s discovery of Australopithecus afarensis in Hadar, Ethiopia is a crucial piece to the puzzle of the human family tree. In this paper, I will not only discuss the 3.18 million year old “Lucy”, but I will also explain the significance of her revolutionary discovery to the world of anthropology and the hominid line. Being several weeks into his third expedition to Hadar, Ethiopia, finding Lucy was no small feat for Dr. Johanson. At the time, Johanson was a professor at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland who had visited this site several times before (Andrews, 2014). Johanson decided on a hunch to accompany Gray on a trip to scout a nearby site. After finding just animal teeth and bones the two decided to take a detour on the way back and while passing...
Words: 1375 - Pages: 6
...7/24/12 Dr. Freeman Search for Evolutionary Proof “Our ability to grasp, to build, and make out thoughts real lie inside this complex system of bones, nerves and vessels.” –Neil Shubin These things would only be possible through evolution. Evolution is any process of formation or growth and development, without it we wouldn’t be here today. Evolution though only an theory has an massive backing within the science community; many fossils, scientist and scientific studies have all but proved evolution indefinitely. The proof for evolution is massive and profound; fossils and carbon dating are absolute proof that creatures very similar to us not only lived but were evolving and walking around. African hominids such as the bipedal Australopithecus afarensis or “Lucy” are some of the most profound examples of evolutionary history. Unlike a common monkey Lucy was a bipedal specimen which meant she walked upright much like an human. What makes her such an amazing discovery is the fact that she was about three-million to almost four-million years old. Scientist from every side of the spectrum have gathered to try to make this theory fact. Neil Shubin paleontologist and archeologist said” We were not designed rationally, but are products of a convoluted history”. The history of the human body is convoluted in every sense of the word; there are approximately three-billion-five-hundred-million years of history in the human body. Gunnar Save-Soderbergh another on the hunt for proof...
Words: 447 - Pages: 2
