ANTHR 102 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Tugen Hills, Orrorin, Koobi Fora
Document Summary
Early hominin sites: mainly associated with east american rift valley (zambesi river in s. africa to dead sea in me) Kenya: tugen hills orrorin tugenensis ; koobi fora -- australopithecus afarensis. Found mostly noncranial remains [femora (leg), humerus (arm), phalanges (finger), mandibular (jaw), dental (tooth)] Femora showed evidence of bipedalism; teeth ape-like. Laetoli footprint trail- trail of fossilized footprints preserved in ash. Footprints very similar to modern human footprints (nondivergent big toe, walking speed, etc) Ethiopia: hadar & middle awash australopithecus afarensis. Lucy australopithecus afarensis (discovered in 1970s, the earliest hominin species) / Found in 1974; small female indiv; 40% complete skeleton! Short, wide pelvis = human like changes in musculature of pelvis and femur for bipedal stance. Limbs are longer than legs = chimp like (adaptation to arboreality) Pelvis and lower limb show adaptations to bipedalism initially terrestrial. Hand phalanx relatively curved like apes and early hominins. Hand proportions similar to humans ; elongation of thumb.
