Word: australopithecus
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...pieces of a prehistoric upper jaw that had eroded from a hillside. "The instant we fit the jaw together," says William Kimbel, science director of the Institute of Human Origins in Berkeley, California, and a leader of the expedition, "we knew we weren't dealing with an apelike Australopithecus [the scientific name for Lucy...
...more important, the discovery may help paleontologists finally figure out when and why the Australopithecus clan sprouted a new branch on the hominid tree. According to a leading theory, the trigger was a global cooling trend that began about 2.7 million years ago and transformed much of Africa's moist woodlands into dryer, more open savannah. Was the development of tools and a more upright stance an evolutionary strategy to cope with the rigors of the new environment? Perhaps. But until now nobody had found a Homo fossil that dated back anywhere near 2.7 million years...
...history, because of its unique geology. Layers of sediment preserved animal specimens, while the volcanic eruptions that periodically shook the valley produced ash and lava whose radioactive elements make the fossils easy to date. Probably the most famous inhabitant of the valley was the diminutive creature known as Lucy (Australopithecus afarensis), whose fossil skeleton was discovered in 1974 and who lived more than 3 million years...
...discovery, which Leakey and Walker have named Australopithecus anamensis (anam is the Turkana word for lake), is yet another reason why paleontologists are reconsidering some of their ideas about why the earliest humans stood up. According to one theory, as a change in climate transformed Africa's moist forests into drier grasslands, evolution favored hom inids that could stand upright in order to spot predators lurking in the tall grasses. Other researchers argue that an upright posture lessened the heat the animals absorbed from the fierce tropical sun. Still others believe bipedalism freed the hands for carrying food or children...
Until this year the famed Lucy and her fellow members of the species Australopithecus afarensis were the oldest known members of the human family. No more: at 4.4 million years of age, the newly unearthed Australopithecus ramidus is the closest link yet (no longer missing) to the common ancestor of apes and humans. A second major find: Homo erectus, the first of Lucy's descendants to leave Africa, made that move about 800,000 years earlier than had been thought. Anyone want an obsolete paleontology book, cheap...