Word: robustus
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Dates: during 1977-1977
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...time, many thought the finds showed that the hulking robustus had been intelligent enough to make tools. Then in 1961 Jonathan Leakey, another of Louis' sons, unearthed parts of a 1.8 million-year-old skull that failed to fit easily into the familiar Australopithecus mold. The creature's teeth were more manlike than those of Australopithecus and the brain was larger; whereas Australopithecus brains averaged 450 to 550 cc. in volume, the cavity of the skull found by Jonathan Leakey indicated that it had contained a brain measuring nearly 700 cc. That was considerably smaller than modern man's brain?...
Though scientists have found practically no telltale fossils from the crucial period between 8 million and 5 million years ago, anthropologists speculate that some time toward the end of this period the hominid line split into the species Australopithecus robustus and africanus. There was also a third species, which some anthropologists believe branched off at the same time, and others think evolved later from A. africanus. Whatever the case, it is generally agreed that the third species was not an Australopithecus, but the first creature that could rightfully be called Homo?...
...Leakey. Again, the rigorous demands of savanna living may have been responsible for the branching out. Australopithecus africanus, straining to augment its food supply in the flat grasslands, began to eat meat?probably obtaining it not by hunting, but by scavenging the kills left behind by large predators. Australopithecus robustus, on the other hand, continued to subsist largely on seeds and nuts. Both eventually died out, unable to compete successfully with the large predators or with Homo. who was coming into...
...chance flight over Lake Natron in northern Tanzania, he spotted what looked like interesting sediment beds and, encouraged by his parents, set off to explore the area. His first expedition proved to be a success; the team he assembled found a fragment from an Australopithecus robustus. He decided to become an anthropologist...
...broad molars to chew their fibrous foods. Fossilized bones can indicate a creature's size and weight, just as the length of a thigh bone of a modern human can be used to accurately estimate his height. But often anthropologists must interpolate. Anatomists studying jawless skulls of Australopithecus robustus could not help noticing the creature's well-developed zygomatic arch, the structure to which the jaw muscles are anchored; they deduced that the man-ape had an enormous jaw. The discovery of large A. robustus jawbones proved that they were right...