List of human evolution fossils
Pliocene ( 5.3 – 2.58 million years old )
Table:
Image

Name

Age

Species

Year
discovered

Country

Discovered by

Now located at

Lothagam mandible (KNM-LT 329) [5]

5.25±0.25 Ma

Australopithecus(?)

1967

Kenya

A.D. Lewis[6]

Ardi

4.4 Ma[7]

Ardipithecus ramidus

1994

Ethiopia

Yohannes Haile-Selassie

KNM-LT 329

4.6±0.4 Ma[8]

Australopithecus anamensis

1967

Kenya

Arnold Lewis, Bryan Patterson[9][10][11]

KNM-TH 13150

4.7±0.55 Ma[12]

Australopithecus anamensis

1984

Kenya

Kiptalam Cheboi[9]

KNM-KP 271

4 Ma[13]

Australopithecus anamensis

1965

Kanapoi, Kenya

Bryan Patterson[9]

Laetoli Footprints

3.7 Ma

Bipedal hominin

1976

Tanzania

Mary Leakey

LH 4

3.4±0.5 Ma

Australopithecus afarensis

1974

Laetoli, Tanzania

Mary Leakey[14]

File:Kadanuumuu.jpg

KSD-VP-1/1 (Kadanuumuu)

3.58 Ma

Australopithecus afarensis

2005

Ethiopia

Yohannes Haile-Selassie

Mandible of an Australopithecus bahrelghazali

KT-12/H1 (Abel)

3.5 Ma

Australopithecus bahrelghazali

1995

Chad

Mamelbaye Tomalta and Michel Brunet

N'Djamena (Chad), BEAC

KNM-WT 40000 (Flat Faced Man)[15]

3.5 Ma

Kenyanthropus platyops

1999

Lake Turkana (West Lake Turkana), Kenya

Justus Erus and Meave Leakey[16]

BRT-VP-3/14

3.4±0.1 Ma

Australopithecus deyiremeda

2015

Ethiopia

Yohannes Haile-Selassie[17]

Stw 573 (Little foot)

3.3 Ma

Australopithecus prometheus(?)

1994

Sterkfontein, South Africa

Ronald J. Clarke

DIK-1 (Selam)

3.3 Ma

Australopithecus afarensis

2000

Ethiopia

Zeresenay Alemseged

AL 288-1 (Lucy)

3.2 Ma

Australopithecus afarensis

1974

Ethiopia

Tom Gray, Donald Johanson, Yves Coppens and Maurice Taieb

National Museum of Ethiopia

AL 200-1

3.1±0.1 Ma

Australopithecus afarensis

1975

Afar Region, Ethiopia

Donald Johanson Yves Coppens and Maurice Taieb

Johanson's knee, AL 129-1

AL 129-1

3.1±0.1 Ma

Australopithecus afarensis

1973

Afar Region, Ethiopia

Donald Johanson

AL 444-2[18]

3 Ma

Australopithecus afarensis

1992

Afar Region, Ethiopia

Yoel Rak

[19]

LD 350-1

2.775±0.025 Ma[20]

Homo(?)

2013

Ethiopia

Chalachew Seyoum

Taking into account the accompanying table along with the background passages listed at the end.

Give the answer to the question: What is the name of the fossil whose species ' name means `` southern ape '' ? Output only the correct answer as {"answer": "YOUR ANSWER"}. Use only the information given.

Australopithecus ( /ˌɒstrələˈpɪθɪkəs , -loʊ-/ OS-trə-lo-PITH-i-kəs ; from Latin australis , meaning 'southern ' , and Greek πίθηκος ( pithekos ) , meaning 'ape ' ) , informal australopithecine or australopith ( although the term australopithecine has a broader meaning as a member of the subtribe Australopithecina , which includes this genus as well as the Paranthropus , Kenyanthropus , Ardipithecus , and Praeanthropus genera ) is a genus of hominins . From paleontological and archaeological evidence , the genus Australopithecus apparently evolved in eastern Africa around 4.2 million years ago before spreading throughout the continent and eventually becoming extinct 1.9 million years ago ( or 1.2 million years ago if the species sometimes separated as Paranthropus are included ) . While none of the groups normally directly assigned to this group survived , Australopithecus does not appear to be literally extinct ( in the sense of having no living descendants ) as the Homo genus probably emerged from late Australopithecus species such as Australopithecus garhi , Australopithecus africanus and/or Australopithecus sediba . During that time , a number of australopithecine species emerged , including the afore-mentioned 3 species , Australopithecus afarensis , Australopithecus anamensis , A. bahrelghazali , and A. deyiremeda ( proposed ) . For some other hominid species of this time - A. robustus , A. boisei and A. aethiopicus - some debate exists whether they truly constitute members of the genus Australopithecus . If so , they would be considered 'robust australopiths ' , while the others would be 'gracile australopiths ' . However , if these more robust species do constitute their own genus , they would be under the genus name Paranthropus , a genus described by Robert Broom when the first discovery was made in 1938 , which makes these species P. robustus , P. boisei and P. aethiopicus . Occasional suggestions have been made ( by Cele-Conde et al 2002 and 2007 ) that A. africanus should also be moved to Paranthropus . Numerous researchers such as Leakey ( 2001 ) , Ward ( 2001 ) , White ( 2002 ) , Alemseged ( 2006 ) and Kimbel ( 2009 ) suggest that A. bahrelghazali is simply a western version of A. Afarensis and not a separate species . On the basis of craniodental evidence , Strait and Grine ( 2004 ) suggest that Australopithecus is paraphyletic and that A. anamensis and A. garhi should be assigned to new genera . Australopithecus species played a significant part in human evolution , with most scientists in the field believing the genus Homo was derived from Australopithecus at some time between three and two million years ago . In addition , they were the first hominids to possess certain genes , known as the duplicated SRGAP2 , which increased the length and ability of neurons in the brain .
Kenya ( /ˈkɛnjə/ ( listen ) ) , officially the Republic of Kenya ( Swahili : Jamhuri ya Kenya ) , is a country in Africa with 47 semiautonomous counties governed by elected governors . At 580,367 square kilometres ( 224,081 sq mi ) , Kenya is the world 's 48th largest country by total area . With a population of more than 47.6 million people , Kenya is the 29th most populous country . Kenya 's capital and largest city is Nairobi , while its oldest city and first capital is the coastal city of Mombasa . Kisumu City is the third largest city and also an inland port on Lake Victoria . Other important urban centres include Nakuru and Eldoret . Kenya is bordered by South Sudan to the northwest , Ethiopia to the north , Somalia to the east , Uganda to the west , Tanzania to the south , and the Indian Ocean to the southeast . According to archaeological dating of associated artifacts and skeletal material , the Cushites first settled in the lowlands of Kenya between 3,200 and 1,300 BC , a phase referred to as the Lowland Savanna Pastoral Neolithic . Nilotic-speaking pastoralists ( ancestral to Kenya 's Nilotic speakers ) started migrating from present-day southern Sudan into Kenya around 500 BC . European colonisation of Kenya began in the 19th century during the European exploration of the interior . Modern-day Kenya emerged from a protectorate established by the British Empire in 1895 and the subsequent Kenya Colony , which began in 1920 . Numerous disputes between the UK and the colony led to the Mau Mau revolution , which began in 1952 , and the subsequent declaration of independence in 1963 .
Ardi ( ARA-VP-6/500 ) is the designation of the fossilized skeletal remains of an Ardipithecus ramidus , thought to be an early human-like female anthropoid 4.4 million years old . It is the most complete early hominid specimen , with most of the skull , teeth , pelvis , hands and feet , more complete than the previously known Australopithecus afarensis specimen called Lucy . In all , 125 different pieces of fossilized bone were found .
Ardipithecus ramidus is a species of australopithecine from the Afar region of Early Pliocene Ethiopia 4.4 million years ago ( mya ) . A. ramidus , unlike modern hominids , has adaptations for both walking on two legs ( bipedality ) and life in the trees ( arboreality ) . However , it would not have been as efficient at bipedality as humans , nor arboreality as non-human great apes . Its discovery , along with Miocene apes , has reworked academic understanding of the chimpanzee-human last common ancestor from appearing much like modern day chimps , orangutans , and gorillas to being a creature without a modern anatomical cognate . The facial anatomy suggests that A. ramidus males were less aggressive than those of modern chimps , which is correlated to increased parental care and monogamy in primates . It has also been suggested that it was among the earliest of human ancestors to use some proto-language , possibly capable of vocalizing at the same level as a human infant . A. ramidus appears to have inhabited woodland and bushland corridors between savannas , and was a generalized omnivore .
Ethiopia ( /ˌiːθiˈoʊpiə/ ; Amharic : ኢትዮጵያ , ʾĪtyōṗṗyā , listen ( help·info ) , Tigrinya : ኢትዮጵያ , Oromo : Itiyoophiyaa , Somali : Itoobiya , Afar : Itiyoophiyaa ) , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia , is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa . It shares borders with Eritrea to the north , Djibouti to the northeast , Somalia , and the de facto state of Somaliland to the east , Kenya to the south , South Sudan to the west and Sudan to the northwest . With over 109 million inhabitants , Ethiopia is the most populous landlocked country in the world and the second-most populous nation on the African continent with a total area of 1,100,000 square kilometres ( 420,000 sq mi ) . Its capital and largest city is Addis Ababa , which lies a few miles west of the East African Rift that splits the country into the Nubian and Somali tectonic plates . Some of the oldest skeletal evidence for anatomically modern humans has been found in Ethiopia . It is widely considered as the region from which modern humans first set out for the Middle East and places beyond . According to linguists , the first Afroasiatic-speaking populations settled in the Horn region during the ensuing Neolithic era . Tracing its roots to the 2nd millennium BCE , Ethiopia 's governmental system was a monarchy for most of its history . Oral literature tells that the monarchy was founded by the Solomonic dynasty of the Queen of Sheba , under its first king , Menelik I . In the first centuries , the Kingdom of Aksum maintained a unified civilization in the region , followed by the Ethiopian Empire circa 1137 . During the late 19th-century Scramble for Africa , Ethiopia and Liberia were two nations that preserved their sovereignty from long-term colonisation by a European colonial power and many newly-independent nations on the continent subsequently adopted its flag colours . However , the country was later occupied by Italy in 1936 and became Italian Ethiopia ( part of Italian East Africa ) until it was liberated during World War II .
Yohannes Haile-Selassie Ambaye ( born on ( 1961-02-23 ) 23 February 1961 in Adigrat , Tigray Region ) is an Ethiopian paleoanthropologist . An authority on pre-Homo sapiens hominids , he particularly focuses his attention on the East African Rift and Middle Awash valleys .
Australopithecus anamensis is a hominin species that lived approximately between 4.2 and 3.8 million years ago and is the oldest known Australopithecus species . Nearly one hundred fossil specimens are known from Kenya and Ethiopia , representing over 20 individuals . It is usually accepted that A. afarensis emerged within this lineage . However , A. anamensis and A. afarensis appear to have lived side-by-side , and it is not fully settled whether the lineage that led to extant humans emerged in A. afarensis , or directly in A. anamensis . Fossil evidence determines that Australopithecus anamensis is the earliest hominin species in the Turkana Basin , but likely co-existed with afarensis towards the end of its existence . A. Anamensis and A. Afarensis may be treated as a single grouping . Preliminary analysis of the sole upper cranial fossil indicates A. anamensis had a smaller cranial capacity ( estimated 365-370 c.c . ) than A. afarensis . A. anamensis is the earliest known species of Australopithecus and the least studied because of lack of skeletal findings . The first fossils of the A. anamensis are dated to around 3.8 and 4.2 million years ago and were found in Kanapoi and Allia Bay in Northern Kenya . They are the earliest Australopithecus species , living during the Plio-Pleistocene era .
Laetoli is a site in Tanzania , dated to the Plio-Pleistocene and famous for its hominin footprints , preserved in volcanic ash . The site of the Laetoli footprints ( Site G ) is located 45 km south of Olduvai gorge . The location and tracks were discovered by archaeologist Mary Leakey and her team in 1976 , and were excavated by 1978 . Based on analysis of the footfall impressions The Laetoli Footprints provided convincing evidence for the theory of bipedalism in Pliocene hominins and received significant recognition by scientists and the public . Since 1998 , paleontological expeditions have continued under the leadership of Amandus Kwekason of the National Museum of Tanzania and Terry Harrison of New York University , leading to the recovery of more than a dozen new hominin finds , as well as a comprehensive reconstruction of the paleoecology . Dated to 3.7 million years ago , they were the oldest known evidence of hominin bipedalism at that time . Subsequently , older Ardipithecus ramidus fossils were found with features that suggest bipedalism . With the footprints there were other discoveries excavated at Laetoli including hominin and animal skeletal remains . Analysis of the footprints and skeletal structure showed clear evidence that bipedalism preceded enlarged brains in hominins . At a species level , the identity of the hominins who made the trace is difficult to construe precisely ; Australopithecus afarensis is the species most commonly proposed .
A year is the orbital period of the Earth moving in its orbit around the Sun . Due to the Earth 's axial tilt , the course of a year sees the passing of the seasons , marked by change in weather , the hours of daylight , and , consequently , vegetation and soil fertility . In temperate and subpolar regions around the planet , four seasons are generally recognized : spring , summer , autumn , and winter . In tropical and subtropical regions , several geographical sectors do not present defined seasons ; but in the seasonal tropics , the annual wet and dry seasons are recognized and tracked . A calendar year is an approximation of the number of days of the Earth 's orbital period as counted in a given calendar . The Gregorian calendar , or modern calendar , presents its calendar year to be either a common year of 365 days or a leap year of 366 days , as do the Julian calendars ; see below . For the Gregorian calendar , the average length of the calendar year ( the mean year ) across the complete leap cycle of 400 years is 365.2425 days . The ISO standard ISO 80000-3 , Annex C , supports the symbol a ( for Latin annus ) to represent a year of either 365 or 366 days . In English , the abbreviations y and yr are commonly used . In astronomy , the Julian year is a unit of time ; it is defined as 365.25 days of exactly 86,400 seconds ( SI base unit ) , totalling exactly 31,557,600 seconds in the Julian astronomical year . The word year is also used for periods loosely associated with , but not identical to , the calendar or astronomical year , such as the seasonal year , the fiscal year , the academic year , etc . Similarly , year can mean the orbital period of any planet ; for example , a Martian year and a Venusian year are examples of the time a planet takes to transit one complete orbit .
The Hominini , or hominins , form a taxonomic tribe of the subfamily Homininae ( hominines ) . Hominini includes the genus Homo ( humans ) , but excludes the genus Gorilla ( gorillas ) . As of 2020 , there is no consensus on whether it should include the genus Pan ( chimpanzees and bonobos ) , the question being closely tied to the complex speciation process connecting humans and chimpanzees and the development of bipedalism in proto-humans . The tribe was originally introduced by John Edward Gray ( 1824 ) , long before any details on the speciation of Pan and Homo were known . Gray 's tribe Hominini by definition includes both Pan and Homo . This definition is still adhered to in the proposal by Mann and Weiss ( 1996 ) , which divides Hominini into three subtribes , Panina ( containing Pan ) , Hominina ( homininans , containing Homo humans ) , and Australopithecina ( containing several extinct australopithecine genera ) . Alternatively , Hominini is taken to exclude Pan . In this case , Panini ( panins , Delson 1977 ) may be used to refer to the tribe containing Pan as its only genus . Minority dissenting nomenclatures include Gorilla in Hominini and Pan in Homo ( Goodman et al . 1998 ) , or both Pan and Gorilla in Homo ( Watson et al . 2001 ) .
Tanzania ( /ˌtænzəˈniːə/ , [ note 2 ] Swahili : [ tanzaˈni.a ] ) , officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( Swahili : Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania ) , is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region . It borders Uganda to the north ; Kenya to the northeast ; Comoro Islands and the Indian Ocean to the east ; Mozambique and Malawi to the south ; Zambia to the southwest ; and Rwanda , Burundi , and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west . Mount Kilimanjaro , Africa 's highest mountain , is in northeastern Tanzania . Many important hominid fossils have been found in Tanzania , such as 6-million-year-old Pliocene hominid fossils . The genus Australopithecus ranged all over Africa 4 to 2 million years ago ; and the oldest remains of the genus Homo are found near Lake Olduvai . Following the rise of Homo erectus 1.8 million years ago , humanity spread all over the Old World , and later in the New World and Australia under the species Homo sapiens . Homo sapiens also overtook Africa and absorbed the older archaic species and subspecies of humanity . One of the oldest known ethnic groups still existing , the Hadzabe , appears to have originated in Tanzania , and their oral history recalls ancestors who were tall and were the first to use fire , medicine , and lived in caves , much like Homo erectus or Homo heidelbergensis who lived in the same region before them . Later in the Stone and Bronze Age , prehistoric migrations into Tanzania included Southern Cushitic speakers who moved south from present-day Ethiopia ; Eastern Cushitic people who moved into Tanzania from north of Lake Turkana about 2,000 and 4,000 years ago ; and the Southern Nilotes , including the Datoog , who originated from the present-day South Sudan-Ethiopia border region between 2,900 and 2,400 years ago . : page 18 These movements took place at about the same time as the settlement of the Mashariki Bantu from West Africa in the Lake Victoria and Lake Tanganyika areas . They subsequently migrated across the rest of Tanzania between 2,300 and 1,700 years ago . German rule began in mainland Tanzania during the late 19th century when Germany formed German East Africa .
Mary Douglas Leakey , FBA ( née Nicol , 6 February 1913 - 9 December 1996 ) was a British paleoanthropologist who discovered the first fossilised Proconsul skull , an extinct ape which is now believed to be ancestral to humans . She also discovered the robust Zinjanthropus skull at Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania , eastern Africa . For much of her career she worked with her husband , Louis Leakey , at Olduvai Gorge , where they uncovered fossils of ancient hominines and the earliest hominins , as well as the stone tools produced by the latter group . Mary Leakey developed a system for classifying the stone tools found at Olduvai . She discovered the Laetoli footprints , and at the Laetoli site she discovered hominin fossils that were more than 3.75 million years old . During her career , Leakey discovered fifteen new species of animal . She also brought about the naming of a new genus . In 1972 , after the death of her husband , Leakey became director of excavations at Olduvai . She maintained the Leakey family tradition of palaeoanthropology by training her son , Richard , in the field .
LH 4 or Laetoli Hominid 4 is the catalogue number of a fossilized mandible which was discovered by Mary Leakey in 1974 from Laetoli , Tanzania . Mary Leakey and her team , Johanson and White , found between 1974 and 1977 forty-two hominid teeth associated with a jawbone . One of them was LH-4 , a fine specimen with nine teeth . White described the fossils , and LH-4 was assigned as the name-bearer of the new species .
Australopithecus afarensis ( Latin : Southern ape from Afar ) is an extinct hominin that lived between 3.9 and 2.9 million years ago in Africa . A. afarensis was slenderly built , like the younger Australopithecus africanus . A. afarensis is thought to be more closely related to the genus Homo ( which includes the modern human species Homo sapiens ) , whether as a direct ancestor or a close relative of an unknown ancestor , than any other known primate from the same time . Some researchers include A. afarensis in the genus Praeanthropus . The most famous fossil is the partial skeleton named Lucy ( 3.2 million years old ) found by Donald Johanson , who was playing the Beatles song Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds ( where the name Lucy comes from ) while at the dig site .
Laetoli is a site in Tanzania , dated to the Plio-Pleistocene and famous for its hominin footprints , preserved in volcanic ash . The site of the Laetoli footprints ( Site G ) is located 45 km south of Olduvai gorge . The location and tracks were discovered by archaeologist Mary Leakey and her team in 1976 , and were excavated by 1978 . Based on analysis of the footfall impressions The Laetoli Footprints provided convincing evidence for the theory of bipedalism in Pliocene hominins and received significant recognition by scientists and the public . Since 1998 , paleontological expeditions have continued under the leadership of Amandus Kwekason of the National Museum of Tanzania and Terry Harrison of New York University , leading to the recovery of more than a dozen new hominin finds , as well as a comprehensive reconstruction of the paleoecology . Dated to 3.7 million years ago , they were the oldest known evidence of hominin bipedalism at that time . Subsequently , older Ardipithecus ramidus fossils were found with features that suggest bipedalism . With the footprints there were other discoveries excavated at Laetoli including hominin and animal skeletal remains . Analysis of the footprints and skeletal structure showed clear evidence that bipedalism preceded enlarged brains in hominins . At a species level , the identity of the hominins who made the trace is difficult to construe precisely ; Australopithecus afarensis is the species most commonly proposed .
Kadanuumuu ( Big Man in the Afar language ) is the nickname of KSD-VP-1/1 . It is a 3.58-million-year-old partial Australopithecus afarensis fossil discovered in the Afar Region of Ethiopia in 2005 , by a team led by Yohannes Haile-Selassie , curator of physical anthropology at The Cleveland Museum of Natural History . Based on skeletal analysis , the fossil is believed to conclusively show that the species was fully bipedal . At more than five feet in stature , Kadanuumuu is much taller than the famous Lucy fossil of the same species discovered in the 1970s , and is approximately 400,000 years older . Among other characteristics , Kadanuumuu 's scapula ( part of the shoulder blade ) , the oldest discovered to date for a hominid , is comparable to that of modern humans , suggesting that the species was land rather than tree-based . Not all researchers agree with this conclusion .
Abel ( KT-12/H1 ) is the name given to the only specimen ever discovered of Australopithecus bahrelghazali . Abel was found in January 1995 in Chad in the Kanem Region by the paleontologist Michel Brunet , who named the fossil Abel in memory of his close friend Abel Brillanceau , who had died of malaria in 1989 . Of Abel remains only part of a jaw , which explains the little information discernable concerning its way of life . The few teeth confirm it to be of the genus Australopithecus : it has a second premolar with a broad and molarized crown , not dissimilar to the Lucy fossil , and as such to the Australopithecus afarensis . [ citation needed ]
Australopithecus bahrelghazali is a hominin species that inhabited the Bahr el Ghazal region in Central Africa around 3.6 million years ago . It was discovered in 1995 by a Franco-Chadian team led by the paleontologist Michel Brunet . All four fossils that have been found since 1995 are jaw ( mandibular or maxillar ) fragments . A. bahrelghazali is the only australopithecine species found in Central Africa . It is also of great importance as it is the first fossil to show that there is a geographical third window , that is , beyond East Africa and South Africa , of early hominin evolution . The locality is roughly 2,500 km ( 1,600 mi ) west of the East African Great Rift Valley , making it far removed from what is broadly thought to be the cradle area of human evolution .
Chad ( /tʃæd/ ( listen ) ; Arabic : تشاد Tshād , Arabic pronunciation : [ tʃaːd ] ; French : Tchad , pronounced [ tʃa ( d ) ] ) , officially known as the Republic of Chad ( Arabic : جمهورية تشاد Jumhūriyyat Tshād ; French : République du Tchad ) , is a landlocked country in north-central Africa . It is bordered by Libya to the north , Sudan to the east , the Central African Republic to the south , Cameroon to the south-west , Nigeria to the southwest ( at Lake Chad ) , and Niger to the west . Chad has several regions : a desert zone in the north , an arid Sahelian belt in the centre and a more fertile Sudanian Savanna zone in the south . Lake Chad , after which the country is named , is the largest wetland in Chad and the second-largest in Africa . The capital N'Djamena is the largest city . Chad 's official languages are Arabic and French . Chad is home to over 200 different ethnic and linguistic groups . The most popular religion of Chad is Islam ( at 55% ) , followed by Christianity ( at 40% ) . Beginning in the 7th millennium BC , human populations moved into the Chadian basin in great numbers . By the end of the 1st millennium AD , a series of states and empires had risen and fallen in Chad 's Sahelian strip , each focused on controlling the trans-Saharan trade routes that passed through the region . France conquered the territory by 1920 and incorporated it as part of French Equatorial Africa . In 1960 , Chad obtained independence under the leadership of François Tombalbaye .
Michel Brunet ( born on April 6 , 1940 ) is a French paleontologist and a professor at the Collège de France . In 2001 Brunet announced the discovery in Central Africa of the skull and jaw remains of a late Miocene hominid nicknamed Toumaï . These remains may predate the earliest previously known hominid remains , Lucy , by over three million years ; however , this conclusion is the subject of a significant controversy .
Kenyanthropus platyops is a 3.5 to 3.2-million-year-old ( Pliocene ) hominin fossil discovered in Lake Turkana , Kenya in 1999 by Justus Erus , who was part of Meave Leakey 's team . Leakey ( 2001 ) proposes that the fossil represents an entirely new hominin species and genus , while others classify it as a species of Australopithecus , Australopithecus platyops , others as a species of Homo , Homo platyops , and yet others interpret it as an individual of Australopithecus afarensis . Archaeological discoveries in Lomekwi in 2015 , identifying possibly the oldest known evidence of hominin use of tools to date , have indicated that Kenyanthropus platyops may have been the earliest tool-users known .
Lake Turkana ( /tɜːrˈkɑːnə , -ˈkæn-/ ) , formerly known as Lake Rudolf , is a lake in the Kenyan Rift Valley , in northern Kenya , with its far northern end crossing into Ethiopia . It is the world 's largest permanent desert lake and the world 's largest alkaline lake . By volume it is the world 's fourth-largest salt lake [ citation needed ] after the Caspian Sea , Issyk-Kul , and Lake Van ( passing the shrinking South Aral Sea ) , and among all lakes it ranks 24th . Lake Turkana is now threatened by the construction of Gilgel Gibe III Dam in Ethiopia due to the damming of the Omo river which supplies most of the lake 's water . Although the lake commonly has been - and to some degree still is - used for drinking water , its salinity ( slightly brackish ) and very high levels of fluoride ( much higher than in fluoridated water ) generally make it unsuitable , and it has also been a source of diseases spread by contaminated water . Increasingly , communities on the lake 's shores rely on underground springs for drinking water . The same characteristics that make it unsuitable for drinking limits its use in irrigation . The climate is hot and very dry . The rocks of the surrounding area are predominantly volcanic . Central Island is an active volcano , emitting vapour . Outcrops and rocky shores are found on the east and south shores of the lake , while dunes , spits and flats are on the west and north , at a lower elevation . On-shore and off-shore winds can be extremely strong , as the lake warms and cools more slowly than the land .
Meave G. Leakey ( born Meave Epps on 28 July 1942 in London , England ) is a British paleoanthropologist . She works at Stony Brook University and is co-ordinator of Plio-Pleistocene research at the Turkana Basin Institute . She studies early hominid evolution and has done extensive field research in the Turkana Basin . She has Doctor of Philosophy and Doctor of Science degrees .
Australopithecus deyiremeda is a proposed species of early hominin among those who lived about 3.5-3.3 million years ago in northern Ethiopia , around the same time and place as several discovered specimens of Australopithecus afarensis , including the well-known Lucy . The discoverers believe A. deyiremeda is a new species . If true , some fossils identified as A. afarensis may more properly belong to A. deyiremeda . Some anthropologists have suggested that the identification of A. deyiremeda as a new species requires more evidence than has been obtained thus far .
Little Foot ( Stw 573 ) is the nickname given to a nearly complete Australopithecus fossil skeleton found in 1994-1998 in the cave system of Sterkfontein , South Africa . The nickname little foot was given to the fossil in 1995 . From the structure of the four ankle bones they were able to ascertain that the owner was able to walk upright . The recovery of the bones proved extremely difficult and tedious , because they are completely embedded in concrete-like rock . It is due to this that the recovery and excavation of the site took around 15 years to complete .
Sterkfontein ( Afrikaans for Strong Spring ) is a set of limestone caves of special interest to paleo-anthropologists located in Gauteng province , about 40 kilometres ( 25 mi ) northwest of Johannesburg , South Africa in the Muldersdrift area close to the town of Krugersdorp . The archaeological sites of Swartkrans and Kromdraai are in the same area . Sterkfontein is a South African National Heritage Site and was also declared a World Heritage Site in 2000 . The area in which it is situated is known as the Cradle of Humankind . The Sterkfontein Caves are also home to numerous wild African species including Belonogaster petiolata , a wasp species of which there is a large nesting presence . Numerous early hominin remains have been found at the site over the last few decades . These have been attributed to Australopithecus , early Homo and Paranthropus .
South Africa , officially the Republic of South Africa ( RSA ) , is the southernmost country in Africa . It is bounded to the south by 2,798 kilometres ( 1,739 mi ) of coastline of Southern Africa stretching along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans ; to the north by the neighbouring countries of Namibia , Botswana , and Zimbabwe ; and to the east and northeast by Mozambique and Eswatini ( Swaziland ) ; and it surrounds the enclaved country of Lesotho . South Africa is the largest country in Southern Africa and the 24th-largest country in the world by land area and , with over 58 million people , is also the world 's 24th-most populous nation . It is the southernmost country on the mainland of the Old World or the Eastern Hemisphere . About 80 percent of South Africans are of Bantu ancestry , divided among a variety of ethnic groups speaking different African languages , nine of which have official status . The remaining population consists of Africa 's largest communities of European , Asian ( Indian ) , and multiracial ( Coloured ) ancestry . South Africa is a multiethnic society encompassing a wide variety of cultures , languages , and religions . Its pluralistic makeup is reflected in the constitution 's recognition of 11 official languages , which is the fourth-highest number in the world . Two of these languages are of European origin : Afrikaans developed from Dutch and serves as the first language of most coloured and white South Africans ; English reflects the legacy of British colonialism , and is commonly used in public and commercial life , though it is fourth-ranked as a spoken first language . The country is one of the few in Africa never to have had a coup d'état , and regular elections have been held for almost a century . However , the vast majority of black South Africans were not enfranchised until 1994 . During the 20th century , the black majority sought to claim more rights from the dominant white minority , with this struggle playing a large role in the country 's recent history and politics .
Ronald J. Clarke is a paleoanthropologist most notable for the discovery of Little Foot , an extraordinarily complete skeleton of Australopithecus , in the Sterkfontein Caves . A more technical description of various aspects of his description of the Australopithecus skeleton was published in the Journal of Quaternary Science . He also discovered the Homo ergaster partial cranium SK 847 . He also played a role in the discovery of a new skeleton of Homo habilis related to Homo rudolfensis . He was associated with the University of the Witwatersrand , then joined Johann Wolfgang Goethe University of Frankfurt am Main in Frankfurt , Germany where he continued his work excavating Little Foot . He later rejoined the University of the Witwatersrand 's Institute for Human Evolution , where he remains as of present .
Selam ( DIK-1/1 ) is the fossilized skull and other skeletal remains of a three-year-old Australopithecus afarensis female hominin , whose bones were first found in Dikika , Ethiopia in 2000 and recovered over the following years . Although she has often been nicknamed Lucy 's baby , the specimen has been dated at 3.3 million years ago , approximately 120,000 years older than Lucy ( dated to about 3.18 mya ) .
Zeresenay ( Zeray ) Alemseged ( born 4 June 1969 ) is an Ethiopian paleoanthropologist and was Chair of the Anthropology Department at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco , United States . He recently joined the faculty of the University of Chicago . He is best known for his discovery , on December 10 , 2000 , of Selam , also referred to as Lucys child , the almost-complete fossilized remains of a 3.3 million-year-old child of the species Australopithecus afarensis . The worlds oldest child , she is the most complete skeleton of a human ancestor discovered to date . Selam represents a milestone in our understanding of human and pre-human evolution and contributes significantly to our understanding of the biology and childhood of early species in the human lineage ; a subject about which we have very little information . Alemseged discovered Selam while working with the Dikika Research Project ( DRP ) , a multi-national research project , which he both initiated in 1999 and leads . The DRP has thus far made many important paleoanthropological discoveries and returns to the field each year to conduct further important research . Alemseged 's specific research centers on the discovery and interpretation of hominin fossil remains and their environments , with emphasis on fieldwork designed to acquire new data on early hominin skeletal biology , environmental context , and behavior .
Lucy is the common name of AL 288-1 , several hundred pieces of bone fossils representing 40 percent of the skeleton of a female of the hominin species Australopithecus afarensis . In Ethiopia , the assembly is also known as Dinkinesh , which means you are marvelous in the Amharic language . Lucy was discovered in 1974 in Africa , at Hadar , a site in the Awash Valley of the Afar Triangle in Ethiopia , by paleoanthropologist Donald Johanson of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History The Lucy specimen is an early australopithecine and is dated to about 3.2 million years ago . The skeleton presents a small skull akin to that of non-hominin apes , plus evidence of a walking-gait that was bipedal and upright , akin to that of humans ( and other hominins ) ; this combination supports the view of human evolution that bipedalism preceded increase in brain size . A 2016 study proposes that Australopithecus afarensis was also to a large extent tree-dwelling , though the extent of this is debated . Lucy acquired her name from the song Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds by the Beatles , which was played loudly and repeatedly in the expedition camp all evening after the excavation team 's first day of work on the recovery site . After public announcement of the discovery , Lucy captured much public interest , becoming a household name at the time . Lucy became famous worldwide , and the story of her discovery and reconstruction was published in a book by Johanson . Beginning in 2007 , the fossil assembly and associated artifacts were exhibited publicly in an extended six-year tour of the United States ; the exhibition was called Lucy 's Legacy : The Hidden Treasures of Ethiopia . There was discussion of the risks of damage to the unique fossils , and other museums preferred to display casts of the fossil assembly . The original fossils were returned to Ethiopia in 2013 , and subsequent exhibitions have used casts .
Donald Carl Johanson ( born June 28 , 1943 ) is an American paleoanthropologist . He is known for discovering - with Yves Coppens and Maurice Taieb - the fossil of a female hominin australopithecine known as Lucy in the Afar Triangle region of Hadar , Ethiopia .
Yves Coppens ( born 9 August 1934 ) is a Breton anthropologist and co-discoverer of the fossil known as Lucy . A graduate from the University of Rennes and Sorbonne , he has studied ancient hominids and has had multiple published works on this topic , and has also produced a film . On Saturday , 18 October 2014 , Professor Coppens was named an Ordinary Member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences by Pope Francis .
Maurice Taieb ( born 1935 ) is a French geologist and paleoanthropologist . He discovered the Hadar formation , recognized its potential importance to paleoanthropology and founded the International Afar Research Expedition ( IARE ) . This enabled co-director Donald Johanson to discover an early hominin fossil , the 3.2-million-year-old Australopithecine Lucy in the Awash Valley of Ethiopia 's Afar Depression .
AL 200-1 ( Afar Locality ) is the fossilized upper palate and teeth of the species Australopithecus afarensis , estimated to be 3.0-3.2 million years old . Its characteristics are an ape-like arrangement of teeth including spatulate incisors and a gap between the canines and outside incisors . It was discovered in the Afar Depression in Ethiopia by Ato Alemayehu Asfaw on 17 October 1974 . Donald Johanson and Maurice Taieb announced the discovery and published the initial description of the fossil in 1976 ( the first detailed description was published by Johanson and Yves Coppens the same year ) .
The Afar Regional State ( /ˈɑːfɑːr/ ; Afar : Qafar ; Amharic : አፋር ክልል ) is one of the nine regional states ( kililoch ) of Ethiopia , and is the homeland of the Afar people . Formerly known as Region 2 , its new capital as of 2007 is the recently constructed city of Semera , which lies on the paved Awash-Assab highway . The Afar Triangle , the northern part of which is the Danakil Depression , is part of the Great Rift Valley of Ethiopia , and is located in the north of the region . It has the lowest point in Ethiopia and one of the lowest in Africa . The southern part of the region consists of the valley of the Awash River , which empties into a string of lakes along the Ethiopian-Djibouti border . Other notable landmarks include the Awash and Yangudi Rassa National Parks .
AL 129-1 is a fossilized knee joint of the species Australopithecus afarensis . It was discovered in Hadar , Ethiopia by Donald Johanson in November 1973 . It is estimated to be 3.4 million years old . Its characteristics include an elliptical Lateral condyle and an oblique femoral shaft like that found in humans , indicating bipedalism .
Ledi-Geraru is a paleoanthropological research area in Mille district , Afar Region , northeastern Ethiopia , along the Ledi and Geraru rivers ( two left tributaries of the Awash , south of the Mille river ) . It stretches for about 50 km , located just to the northeast of the Hadar paleoanthropological area . Early research was conducted in 1972-1974 The Ledi-Geraru Research Project was launched in 2002 . The site is known for its early stone tools , dated about 2.6 million years old . A hominin mandible was found in 2013 , known as LD 350-1 and dated 2.8 million years old , which may qualify as a very early specimen of the genus Homo .
Homo ( from Latin homō , meaning 'man ' ) is the genus which emerged in the otherwise extinct genus Australopithecus that encompasses the extant species Homo sapiens ( modern humans ) , plus several extinct species classified as either ancestral to or closely related to modern humans ( depending on the species ) , most notably Homo erectus and Homo neanderthalensis . The genus is taken to emerge with the appearance of Homo habilis , just over two million years ago . Genus Homo , together with the genus Paranthropus is probably sister to A. africanus in the genus Australopithecus , which itself had previously split from the lineage of Pan , the chimpanzees . Homo erectus appeared about two million years ago and , in several early migrations , it spread throughout Africa ( where it is dubbed Homo ergaster ) and Eurasia . It was likely the first human species to live in a hunter-gatherer society and to control fire . An adaptive and successful species , Homo erectus persisted for more than a million years , and gradually diverged into new species by around 500,000 years ago . Homo sapiens ( anatomically modern humans ) emerged close to 300,000 to 200,000 years ago , most likely in Africa , and Homo neanderthalensis emerged at around the same time in Europe and Western Asia . H. sapiens dispersed from Africa in several waves , from possibly as early as 250,000 years ago , and certainly by 130,000 years ago , the so-called Southern Dispersal beginning about 70-50,000 years ago leading to the lasting colonisation of Eurasia and Oceania by 50,000 years ago . Both in Africa and Eurasia , H. sapiens met with and interbred with archaic humans . Separate archaic ( non-sapiens ) human species are thought to have survived until around 40,000 years ago ( Neanderthal extinction ) , with possible late survival of hybrid species as late as 12,000 years ago ( Red Deer Cave people ) .