Word: australopithecus
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Whatever the evolutionary relationships between these prehuman species, paleoanthropologists know that at some point a second major shift took place. One of Lucy's descendants gave rise to a new kind of creature, the first of the genus Homo. Yet none of the known variants of Australopithecus seemed anatomically close enough to the Homo line to qualify...
...characteristics wasn't precisely what the experts expected--they were looking to see smaller, more specialized teeth and a larger braincase. So they named their hominid Australopithecus garhi (garhi means surprise in Afar). But the skull's intermediate anatomy and its age--about 2.5 million years--put it midway in both time and form between the most recent A. afarensis and the oldest known fossils of our own genus...
...garhi make both the tools Semaw found and the ones used to butcher animals at Bouri? "If it wasn't garhi," asks White, "what would it have been?" Semaw is more cautious. "Australopithecus garhi is the best candidate thus far," he concedes, but he doesn't rule out the possibility that another species, yet undiscovered, deserves the credit...
...Just as australopithecus afarensis eventually gave rise to the genus Homo, so one species came to stand out among the Homo line and eventually led to modern humans. The fossil record is far too spotty to say how Homo habilis (handy man) and other members of its genus--H. rudolfensis, H. ergaster and H. erectus--were related, to what extent they overlapped or even whether they all represent distinct species. Many scientists believe, though, that it was H. erectus that was the ultimate victor, the direct ancestor of our own species...
...Australopithecus anamensis...