What Species of Hominid Are Found in the Early Pliocene?

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What Species of Hominid Are Found in the Early Pliocene? Last class • What species of hominid are found in the early Pliocene? • Where are they found? • What are their distinguishing anatomical characteristics? • How do the Australopithecines differ from the possible hominids? Tuesday, April 19, 2011 Taxonomy • Superfamily: Hominoidea • Family: Hominidae • Subfamily: Homininae • Tribe: Australopithecini Tuesday, April 19, 2011 Cast of Characters Orrorin tugenensis Sahelanthropus tchadensis Ardipithecus kadabba Ardipithecus ramidus Australopithecus anamensis Australopithecus afarensis Kenyanthropus platyops Australopithecus bahrelghazali Tuesday, April 19, 2011 Australopithecines • What are the common characteristics of the early Australopithecines? • How do the species differ from one another? • When does each fall in time and space? • What are the possible phylogenies of these species? Tuesday, April 19, 2011 Australopithecus afarensis • 3.9-2.9 mya • Short, broad pelvis • tilted femurs • In-line big toe • Sagittal crest • Sexually dimorphic • Small bodied • Small brain 5 Tuesday, April 19, 2011 6 Tuesday, April 19, 2011 Australopithecus bahrelghazali • 3.5-3.0 mya • Western africa - Chad • Same as A. afarensis? 7 Tuesday, April 19, 2011 Kenyanthropus platyops 8 Tuesday, April 19, 2011 Kenyanthropus lateral 9 Tuesday, April 19, 2011 A. afarensis and K. platyops 10 Tuesday, April 19, 2011 Kenyanthropus platyops • 3.5 mya • Flat face • Small molars • Australopithecus? Even A. afarensis? 11 Tuesday, April 19, 2011 Evolutionary Relationships 12 Tuesday, April 19, 2011 13 Tuesday, April 19, 2011 14 Tuesday, April 19, 2011 Pliocene Hominids Early Australopithecus anamensis Australopithecus afarensis Kenyanthropus platyops Australopithecus bahrelghazali Gracile Robust Australopithecus africanus Australopithecus (P.) aethiopicus Australpithecus gahri Australopithecus (P.) boisei Australopithecus sediba Australopithecus (P.) robustus Tuesday, April 19, 2011 Later Australopithecines Gracile Australopithecines Robust Australopithecines Australopithecus gahri Australopithecus aethiopicus Australopithecus africanus Australopithecus boisei Australopithecus sediba Australopithecus robustus Tuesday, April 19, 2011 The Robust Australopithecines • AKA Paranthropus • Hard object feeding • Sagittal crest • Large cheek teeth • Flared zygomatic arch • Dished Face • Extreme postorbital constriction • Woodland and open woodland habitat Tuesday, April 19, 2011 Robust and gracile Tuesday, April 19, 2011 Kenyanthropus - robust? Tuesday, April 19, 2011 Australopithecus aethiopicus 2.7-2.3 mya Tuesday, April 19, 2011 Australopithecus boisei 2.3-1.3 mya Tuesday, April 19, 2011 Australopithecus robustus 2-1 mya Tuesday, April 19, 2011 Gracile Australopithecines • Slight brain size increase • Rounded Vault • No crests • Less projecting face • Bipedal anatomy • 3.5-<2.0 mya Tuesday, April 19, 2011 Australopithecus gahri 2.5 mya Tuesday, April 19, 2011 Taung Tuesday, April 19, 2011 Australopithecus africanus 3-2.4 mya Tuesday, April 19, 2011 Reconstruction Tuesday, April 19, 2011 Australopithecus sediba • dates to right around 1.9 mya - no older than that • brain size (95% adult size) ~ 420 cc • maximum height 1.3 m • smaller teeth and cheekbones than A. africanus • longer legs and pelvic changes more like Homo Tuesday, April 19, 2011 RESEARCH ARTICLES Etymology.Thewordsediba means “foun- tain” or “wellspring” in the seSotho language. Holotype and paratype.MalapaHominin Australopithecus sediba: A New 1 (MH1) is a juvenile individual represented by apartialcranium,fragmentedmandible,andpar- tial postcranial skeleton that we designate as Species of Homo-Like Australopith the species holotype [Figs. 1 and 2, supporting online material (SOM) text S1, figs. S1 and S2, from South Africa and table S1]. The first hominin specimen re- covered from Malapa was the right clavicle of Lee R. Berger,1,2* Darryl J. de Ruiter,3,1 Steven E. Churchill,4,1 Peter Schmid,5,1 MH1 (UW88-1), discovered by Matthew Berger Kristian J. Carlson,1,6 Paul H. G. M. Dirks,2,7 Job M. Kibii1 on 15 August 2008. MH2 is an adult individual represented by isolated maxillary teeth, a partial Despite a rich African Plio-Pleistocene hominin fossil record, the ancestry of Homo and its relation mandible, and partial postcranial skeleton that we to earlier australopithecines remain unresolved. Here we report on two partial skeletons with an designate as the species paratype. Although MH1 age of 1.95 to 1.78 million years. The fossils were encased in cave deposits at the Malapa site in is a juvenile, the second molars are already South Africa. The skeletons were found close together and are directly associated with craniodental erupted and in occlusion. Using either a human remains. Together they represent a new species of Australopithecus that is probably descended or an ape model, this indicates that MH1 had from Australopithecus africanus. Combined craniodental and postcranial evidence demonstrates probably attained at least 95% of adult brain size that this new species shares more derived features with early Homo than any other australopith (15). Although additional growth would have species and thus might help reveal the ancestor of that genus. occurred in the skull and skeleton of this individual, we judge that it would not have appreciably altered the morphology on which he origin of the genus Homo is widely bination of primitive and derived characters of the this diagnosis is based. debated, with several candidate ancestors cranium and postcranium. Locality.ThetwoAu. sediba type skeletons Tbeing proposed in the genus Australopith- The following is a description of Au. sediba: were recovered from the Malapa site (meaning ecus (1–3)orperhapsKenyanthropus (4). The Order Primates Linnaeus 1758; suborder Anthro- “homestead” in seSotho), situated roughly 15 km earliest occurrence of fossils attributed to Homo poidea Mivart 1864; superfamily Hominoidea NNE of the well-known sites of Sterkfontein, (H. aff. H. habilis)at2.33millionyearsago(Ma) Gray 1825; family Hominidae Gray 1825; genus Swartkrans, and Kromdraai in Gauteng Province, in Ethiopia (5)makesittemporallyantecedentto Australopithecus DART 1925; species Australo- South Africa. Detailed information regarding all other known species of the genus Homo. pithecusAustralopithecus sediba sp. nov. geology and dating sediba of the site is in (16). Within early Homo,thehypodigmsandphylo- genetic relationships between H. habilis and another early species, H. rudolfensis,remain unresolved (6–8), and the placement of these species within Homo has been challenged (9). H. habilis is generally thought to be the ancestor of H. erectus (10–13), although this might be questioned on the basis of the considerable temporal overlap that existed between them (14). The identity of the direct ancestor of the genus Homo,andthusitslinktoearlierAustralo- pithecus,remainscontroversial.Herewedescribe two recently discovered, directly associated, par- tially articulated Australopithecus skeletons from the Malapa site in South Africa, which allow us to investigate several competing hypotheses re- garding the ancestry of Homo.Theseskeletons cannot be accommodated within any existing fossil taxon; thus, we establish a new species, Australopithecus sediba,onthebasisofacom- 1Institute for Human Evolution, University of the Witwatersrand, Private Bag 3, Wits 2050, South Africa. 2School of Geosciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Private Bag 3, Wits 2050, South Africa. 3Department of Anthropology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA. 4Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, Box 90383, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA. 5Anthropological Institute and Museum, University of Zürich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, CH-8057Tuesday, Zürich, Switzerland. April 19, 2011 6Department of Anthropology, Indiana University, Bloomington, Fig. 1. Craniodental elements of Au. sediba. UW88-50 (MH1) juvenile cranium in (A) superior, (B) IN 47405, USA. 7School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, frontal, and (C) left lateral views. (D) UW88-8 (MH1) juvenile mandible in right lateral view, (E) James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland 4811, Australia. UW88-54 (MH2) adult mandible in right lateral view, (F) UW88-8 mandible in occlusal view, (G) *To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: UW 88-54 mandible in occlusal view, and (H) UW 88-50 right maxilla in occlusal view (scale bars [email protected] are in centimeters). www.sciencemag.org SCIENCE VOL 328 9 APRIL 2010 195 RESEARCH ARTICLES Diagnosis. Au. sediba can be distinguished nounced, flaring zygomatics of Au. africanus; long upper limbs with large joint surfaces, and from other species of Australopithecus by a the arrangement of the supraorbital torus, naso- the retention of apparently primitive charac- combination of characters presented in Table 1; alveolar region, infraorbital region, and zy- teristics in the upper and lower limbs (table S2). comparative cranial measures are presented in gomatics result in a derived facial mask; the Au. sediba differs from other australopiths, but Table 2. A number of derived characters separate mandibular symphysis is vertically oriented with shares with Homo anumberofderivedfeatures Au. sediba from the older chronospecies Au. aslightbonychinandaweakpost-incisivepla- of the os coxa, including increased buttressing of anamensis and Au. afarensis. Au. sediba exhibits num; and the teeth are differentiated by the the ilium and expansion of its posterior portion, neither the extreme megadontia, extensive cra- weakly defined
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