Ardipithecus kadabba

Ardipithecus kadabba (abbreviated Ar. kadabba) is a species of very early hominid. It is now extinct. It lived from around 5.8 million to 5.2 million years ago.

It is one of two species in the genus Ardipithecus. The other is Ardipithecus ramidus.

The name "kadabba" refers to the word for "oldest ancestor" in the Afar language of Ethiopia.

 Discoveries 
The first Ar. kadabba fossil was found in 1997 by paleoanthropologist Yohannes Haile-Selassie. At first, he thought the fossil came from a subspecies of Ar. ramidus. Then he found another 11 specimens from at least 5 individuals.Haile-Selassie, Y. (2001). "Late Miocene hominids from the Middle Awash, Ethiopia". Nature. 42 (6843): 179–181. Bibcode:2001Natur.412..178H. doi:10.1038/35084063. PMID 11449272. S2CID 4432082.

These specimens included hand and foot bones, partial arm bones, and a collarbone. They were later dated to be 5.6 million to 5.8 million years old.

In 2002, scientists found six Ar. kadabba teeth at the Asa Koma archaeological site in the Afar Depression. These confirmed that Ar. kadabba was its own unique species, not a subspecies of A. ramidus.Haile-Selassie, Y.; Suwa, G.; White, Timothy Douglas (2004). "Late Miocene Teeth from Middle Awash, Ethiopia, and Early Hominid Dental Evolution". Science. 303 (5663): 1503–1505. Bibcode:2004Sci...303.1503H. doi:10.1126/science.1092978. PMID 15001775. S2CID 30387762. Scientists later learned that Ar. kadabba came before Ar. ramidus and was probably its ancestor.Lovejoy, C. O. (2014). "Ardipithecus and Early Human Evolution in Light of Twenty-First-Century Developmental Biology". Journal of Anthropological Research. 70 (3): 337–363. doi:10.3998/jar.0521004.0070.301. JSTOR 24394231. S2CID 84197134.

In total, scientists have found 19 Ar. kadabba specimens that include parts of the teeth, jaw, feet, and hands and arms.

 Description 
A 5.2-million-year-old toe bone found by Haile-Selassie shows an adaptation for walking upright. This suggests that Ar. kadabba may have been bipedal.

Their bodies and brains were probably a similar size to modern chimpanzees'. Their diet probably included a lot of tough, fibrous foods, like hard nuts.

Based on fossil animal evidence found near Ar. kadabba remains, the species lived in a wooded area with access to permanent fresh water sources (like lakes and springs). The area included swamps and grasslands.

 References 

Category:Australopithecines