Australopithecus Research Papers

The Australopithecus anamensis was one of the early human ancestors who lived approximately 4.2 to 3.9 million years ago. This hominid was found on the Eastern of Africa, such as the Middle Awash in northern Ethiopia and in Lake Turkana in Kenya. The word Australopithecus is the genus name, and it literally means ‘Southern Ape’ (coming from the Latin word ‘australo’ = ‘southern’ and a Greek word ‘pithecus’ = ‘ape’). The word anamensis comes from the word ‘anam’ (meaning ‘lake’ in the Turkana language) that refers to the side of the lake where these species once lived.

The Australopithecus anamensis has some hidden secrets about its past. Scientists are trying to know if the Australopithecus anamensis was a same or a different species from the Australopithecus afarensis. Scientists are also trying to figure out if the Australopithecus anamensis was a descendent from the Ardipithecus ramidus.

The Australopithecus anamensis had a mix of traits found in humans and apes. Examples of human-like traits can be seen in the following: Structures from the tibia (shinbone) and the ankle joint, indicates the ability to walk on two legs (bipedal). Rather than having strong elbow joints to support walking on four legs (quadrupedal) as the apes do, the A. …show more content…
They had thicker enamel and shorter canine teeth than their earlier ancestors did. Long forearms structures indicates that these hominids were also tree climbers. Some stains from the wrist bones signals that they had strong tendons in the hands that were essential for climbing trees. Shapes from the lower jaw and the upper jaw were very similar from the apes. Instead of having a slanted forward chin, in the lower jaw, the chin bone was slanted backwards. In addition, on the upper jaw, it had a shallow plate in the ceiling of the