page_title: Australopithecus afarensis
section_title: Research history
hierarchical_section_title: Australopithecus afarensis / Taxonomy / Research history
caption_attribution_description: Español: Mandíbula de Australopithecus afarensis, LH 4. Réplica Original: Laetoli (Tanzania) 3,6 millones de años Museo Nacional de Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania Réplica: Colección privada (Madrid) Exhibido en exposición temporal, "La cuna de la humanidad", en el Museo Arqueológico de Regional de Madrid
context_page_description: Australopithecus afarensis is an extinct species of australopithecine which lived from about 3.9–2.9 million years ago in the Pliocene of East Africa. The first fossils were discovered in the 1930s, but major fossil finds would not be discovered until the 1970s. In the 1972–1977 expedition in Hadar, Ethiopia, the International Afar Research Expedition led by anthropologists Maurice Taieb, Donald Johanson, and Yves Coppens unearthed several hundreds of hominin specimens, the most significant being the exceedingly well-preserved skeleton AL 288-1 and the site AL 333. Beginning in 1974, Mary Leakey led an expedition into Laetoli, Tanzania, and recovered notably fossil trackways. In 1978, the species was first described, but this was followed by arguments for splitting the wealth of specimens into different species given the wide range of variation which had been attributed to sexual dimorphism. A. afarensis probably descended from A. anamensis and possibly gave rise to Homo, though the latter hypothesis is not without dissent.
  A. afarensis had a tall face, a delicate brow ridge, and prognathism. The jawbone was quite robust, similar to that of gorillas.
context_section_description: Beginning in the 1930s, some of the most ancient hominin remains of the time dating to 3.8–2.9 million years ago were recovered from East Africa. Because Australopithecus africanus fossils were commonly being discovered throughout the 1920s and 40s in South Africa, these remains were provisionally classified as Australopithecus aff. africanus. In 1948, German palaeontologist Edwin Hennig proposed classifying these remains into a new genus, "Praeanthropus", but he failed to give a species name. In 1950, German anthropologist Hans Weinhert proposed classifying a jawbone from the headwaters of the Gerusi River (near Laetoli) as Meganthropus africanus, but this was largely ignored. In 1955, M.S. Şenyürek proposed the combination Praeanthropus africanus. Major collections were made in Laetoli, Tanzania, on an expedition beginning in 1974 directed by British palaeoanthropologist Mary Leakey, and in Hadar, Ethiopia, from 1972–1977 by the International Afar Research Expedition (IARE) formed by French geologist Maurice Taieb, American palaeoanthropologist Donald Johanson, and Breton anthropologist Yves Coppens. These fossils were remarkably well-preserved and many had associated skeletal aspects. In 1973, the IARE team unearthed the first knee joint, AL 129-1, and showed the earliest evidence at the time of bipedalism. In 1974, Johanson and graduate student Tom Gray discovered the extremely well-preserved skeleton AL 288–1, commonly referred to as "Lucy" (named after The Beatles song Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds which was playing on their tape recorder that evening). In 1975, the IARE recovered 216 specimens belonging to 13 individuals, AL 333 "the First Family" (though the individuals were not necessarily related). In 1976, Leakey and colleagues discovered fossil trackways, and preliminarily classified Laetoli remains into Homo spp., attributing Australopithecus-like traits as evidence of them being transitional fossils.
  In 1978, Johanson, Tim D. White, and Coppens classified the hundreds of specimens collected thus far from both Hadar and Laetoli into a single new species, A. afarensis, and considered the apparently wide range of variation a result of sexual dimorphism. The species name honours the Afar Region of Ethiopia where the majority of the specimens had been recovered from. They later selected the jawbone LH 4 as the lectotype specimen because of its preservation quality and because White had already fully described and illustrated it the year before. In 1979, Johanson and White proposed that A. afarensis was the last common ancestor between Homo and Paranthropus, supplanting A. africanus in this role. Considerable debate of the validity of this species followed, with proposals for synonymising them with A. africanus or recognising multiple species from the Laetoli and Hadar remains. The skull KNM-ER 1470 (now H. rudolfensis) was at first dated to 2.9 million years ago, which cast doubt on the ancestral position of both A. afarensis or A. africanus, but it has since been re-dated to about 2 million years ago. Palaeoartist Walter Ferguson has proposed splitting A. afarensis into "H. antiquus", a relict dryopithecine "Ramapithecus" (now Kenyapithecus), and a subspecies of A. africanus. His recommendations have largely been ignored. In 2003, Spanish writer Camilo José Cela Conde and evolutionary biologist Francisco J. Ayala proposed reinstating "Praeanthropus" including A. afarensis alongside Sahelanthropus, A. anamensis, A. bahrelghazali, and A. garhi. In 2004, Dutch biologist Bjarne Westergaard and Danish geologist Neils Bonde proposed splitting off "Homo hadar" with the 3.2 million year old partial skull AL 333–45 as the holotype, because a foot from the First Family was apparently more humanlike than that of Lucy. In 2011, Bonde agreed with Ferguson that Lucy should be split into a new species, though erected a new genus as "Afaranthropus antiquus".
  A. afarensis is known only from East Africa. Beyond Laetoli and the Afar Region, the species has been recorded in Kenya at Koobi Fora and possibly Lothagam; and elsewhere 
caption: The lectotype LH 4
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