Australopithecus

Australopithecus africanus (meaning “Southern ape of Africa”) was the first time the word “pithecus” was assigned to any hominin species which in essence declared humans as a descendant from apes. It is the oldest species of hominin to be found in Southern Africa where they are estimated to have lived around 3.3 to 2.1 million years ago. Its anatomy is similar to that of Australopithecus afarensis, but it has crucial differences in the skull and teeth. However, the fact that Australopithecus africanus shares some morphological features with Australopithecus afarensis, (along with other with members of the Paranthropus genus and early Homo species) it makes this species difficult to place in the hominin lineage. Therefore studying the facts about Australopithecus africanus…

Australopithecus africanus In the greatest debate of anthropology lies the all consuming desire to know where we as humans come from. Who were our ancestors and what made them so different from us? It is debated if Australopithecus africanus or Australopithecus afarensis is the direct ancestor to the genus homo. Through critical evaluation of the features of the skeleton, diet and dentition, and use of bipedality, it is evident that A. africanus is a direct ancestor to modern humans while…

Paranthropus larger braincases than Australopithecus. Paranthropus is associated with stone tools both in southern and eastern Africa, and there is a considerable information they made and utilized by these robust australopithecines. Most the early Homo was the tool maker, and some of the hand fossils from Swartkrans, South Africa, indicate that the hand of Paranthropus robustus adapted for precision grasping and tool use. Most Paranthropus species seem almost not have language for their…

Title of the Essay We Australopithecus afarensis had been living in the northeastern Africa ever since our first generation. Though not being known as the most powerful living species here, our ingrained talent in arboreal life helped us gain advantage over many other species in chance of survival. For centuries we firmly believed in the idea of all creatures were quadrupedal and we had never seen any exception. It was by accident that we discovered a group of species that featured bipedalism…

splitters paradigm results in different models of Hominin phylogeny. Ardipithecus lived 5.8-5.5 million year ago and Ardipithecus has upright, two legs and seems to have lived in woodland habitat. Their fossils suggest that they had cranial, facial, dental, and upper limb bones. They are ape like in size, anatomy and habitat. But they are categorized as Homini because of their bipedalism. Ardipithecus is the earliest widely accepted hominin genus who live Lumpur tree is saying that…

is the specific conditions required for attaining the fossilization of an organism – this leaves many organisms, or perhaps species of organisms based on their habitat, without documentation. It is still unsure the exact amount of hominine species that existed; however, with new fossils being discovered occasionally (take “Lucy” for example), human’s evolutionary timeline becomes less muddled. The earliest years of transition after the lineage split are poorly documented. The earliest…

Scientific Research, and Donald Carl Johanson, 34, of Case Western Reserve University and the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, discovered stone instruments going back 2.6 million years in the Afar area of Ethiopia. After two years their group made a considerably more sensational disclosure. On November 24, 1974, Donald Johanson and his understudy Tom Gray were reviewing a site named Hadar in the Afar area of Ethiopia, East -Africa when they saw a bone sticking out of the ground. They started…

Italian team unearths 800k year old Homo Erectus footprint A team of Italian researchers have possibly uncovered the oldest ever fossilized footprint left behind by modern man's early ancestor, Homo Erectus. The prints are thought to date back some 800,000 years and were unearthed in the desserts of south eastern Eritrea. “The footprints will reveal a lot about the evolution of man, because they provide vital clues as to our ancestors gait and locomotion,” Explained Alfredo Coppa, the…

important aspect to better understand how modern-day humans developed. The oldest of the species in the chart above is Australopithecus afarensis. Australopithecus afarensis appeared roughly 3.85 - 2.95 million years ago; while it more closely resembled an ape, the evolutionary development into modern humans was beginning. Australopithecus afarensis had more humanlike teeth, the canines were smaller than those found in modern apes and the jaw shape was somewhere between the rectangular shape…

hard to describe because to us it’s just normal. We eat all sorts of foods including: meats, vegetables, fruits, grains, and dairy. Today humans have jobs, families, and houses. Lucky for us, we don’t have to adapt to our environments as much anymore, we just change it to better fit our needs (ex. Instead of adapting to the temp. we just put air conditioning in our houses and buildings). Back then they couldn’t do this because they didn’t have developed technology. Our early ancestors were…