Australopithecus Afarensis :: essays papers

genus Australopithecus Afarensis The species A. afarensis is one of the fall apart known australopithecines, with regards to the number of samples attributed to the species. From speculations about their close relatives, the gorilla and chimpanzee, A. afarensis probable brotherly structure can be presumed. The species was named by Johanson and Taieb in 1973. This discovery of a framing lead to a heated debate over the hardness of the species. The species eventually was accepted by most researchers as a saucy species of australopithecine and a samely candidate for a military personnel ancestor.Australopithecus afarensis existed between 3.9 and 3.0 million years ago. The distinctive characteristics of A. afarensis were a low forehead, a bony ridge over the eyes, a flat nose, no chin, much humanlike teeth, pelvis and leg bones resembled those of modern man. Females were smaller than males. Their inner dimorphism was malesfemales 1.5. A. afarensis was not as sexually dimo rphic as gorillas, but more sexually dimorphic than humans or chimpanzees. A lot of scientists work out that Australopithecus afarensis was partially adapted to climbing the trees, because the fingers and toe bones of the species were slew and longer than the ones of the modern human. A. afarensis is classified as an ape, not a human. It is a Hominid, which is an ape closely related to human beings. The first fossils of a skeleton were found at Hadar a site in northeastern Ethiopia. The police squad named the skeleton Lucy after the Beatles song, Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds. In terms of general body size, brain size and skull shape, Lucy resembles a chimpanzee. However, A. afarensis has some surprisingly human characteristics. For example, the way the hip joint and pelvis articulate indicates that Lucy walked upright like a human, not like a chimp. This means that upright position and bi-pedalism preceded the development of what we would recognize as human beings and human intelligence. All non-human order Primates sleep in the trees at night. So, it would seem to be that A. afarensis slept in trees also. Their in straitened circumstances(p) structure agrees with their arboreal lifestyle. The large premolars of A. afarensis suggests they were frugivores, and the thick enamel on the teeth suggests they may have eaten nuts, grains, or hard fruit pies (Boyd and Silk, p.