Ardipithecus is a genus of an extinct hominine that lived during the Late Miocene and Early Pliocene epochs in the Afar Depression, Ethiopia. Originally described as one of the earliest ancestors of humans after they diverged from the chimpanzees, the relation of this genus to human ancestors and whether it is a hominin is now a matter of debate. Two fossil species are described in the literature: A. ramidus, which lived about 4.4 million years ago during the early Pliocene, and A. kadabba, dated to approximately 5.6 million years ago. Behavioral analysis showed that Ardipithecus could be very similar to chimpanzees, indicating that the early human ancestors were very chimpanzee-like in behavior.
Homininae, also called "African hominids" or "African apes", is a subfamily of Hominidae. It includes two tribes, with their extant as well as extinct species: 1) the tribe Hominini ―and 2) the tribe Gorillini (gorillas). Alternatively, the genus Pan is sometimes considered to belong to its own third tribe, Panini. Homininae comprises all hominids that arose after orangutans split from the line of great apes. The Homininae cladogram has three main branches, which lead to gorillas, and to humans and chimpanzees via the tribe Hominini and subtribes Hominina and Panina. There are two living species of Panina and two living species of gorillas, but only one extant human species. Traces of extinct Homo species, including Homo floresiensis and Homo denisova, have been found with dates as recent as 40,000 years ago. Organisms in this subfamily are described as hominine or hominines.
Australopithecus is a genus of early hominins that existed in Africa during the Late Pliocene and Early Pleistocene. The genera Homo, Paranthropus, and Kenyanthropus evolved from Australopithecus. Australopithecus is a member of the subtribe Australopithecina, which also includes Ardipithecus, though the term "australopithecine" is sometimes used to refer only to members of Australopithecus. Species include A. garhi, A. africanus, A. sediba, A. afarensis, A. anamensis, A. bahrelghazali and A. deyiremeda. Debate exists as to whether some Australopithecus species should be reclassified into new genera, or if Paranthropus and Kenyanthropus are synonymous with Australopithecus, in part because of the taxonomic inconsistency.
Sahelanthropus tchadensis is an extinct species of the Homininae dated to about 7 million years ago, during the Miocene epoch. The species, and its genus Sahelanthropus, was announced in 2002, based mainly on a partial cranium, nicknamed Toumaï, discovered in northern Chad.
Abel was a son of Adam and Eve in the Bible. According to the Bible, he was the first person to die, murdered by his brother Cain.
Australopithecus afarensis is an extinct species of australopithecine which lived from about 3.9–2.9 million years ago (mya) in the Pliocene of East Africa. The first fossils were discovered in the 1930s, but major fossil finds would not take place until the 1970s. From 1972 to 1977, the International Afar Research Expedition—led by anthropologists Maurice Taieb, Donald Johanson, and Yves Coppens—unearthed several hundreds of hominin specimens in Hadar, Ethiopia, the most significant being the exceedingly well-preserved skeleton AL 288-1 ("Lucy") and the site AL 333. Beginning in 1974, Mary Leakey led an expedition into Laetoli, Tanzania, and notably recovered 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.
Homo is the genus that emerged in the genus Australopithecus that encompasses the extant species Homo sapiens, plus several extinct species classified as either ancestral to or closely related to modern humans, most notably Homo erectus and Homo neanderthalensis. The genus emerged with the appearance of Homo habilis just over 2 million years ago. Homo, together with the genus Paranthropus, is probably sister to Australopithecus africanus, which itself had previously split from the lineage of Pan, the chimpanzees.
Paleoanthropology or paleo-anthropology is a branch of paleontology and anthropology which seeks to understand the early development of anatomically modern humans, a process known as hominization, through the reconstruction of evolutionary kinship lines within the family Hominidae, working from biological evidence and cultural evidence.
Orycteropus is a genus of mammals in the family Orycteropodidae within Tubulidentata. The genus is known from Late Miocene to Recent of Africa.
Australopithecus anamensis is a hominin species that lived approximately between 4.2 and 3.8 million years ago and is the oldest known Australopithecus species. Nearly one hundred fossil specimens are known from Kenya and Ethiopia, representing over 20 individuals. It is usually accepted that A. afarensis emerged within this lineage. However, A. anamensis and A. afarensis appear to have lived side by side, and it is not fully settled whether the lineage that led to extant humans emerged in A. afarensis, or directly in A. anamensis. Fossil evidence determines that Australopithecus anamensis is the earliest hominin species in the Turkana Basin, but likely co-existed with afarensis towards the end of its existence. A. anamensis and A. afarensis may be treated as a single grouping. Preliminary analysis of the sole upper cranial fossil indicates A. anamensis had a smaller cranial capacity than A. afarensis. A. anamensis is the earliest known species of Australopithecus and the least studied because of lack of skeletal findings. The first fossils of A. anamensis are dated to around 3.8 and 4.2 million years ago and were found in Kanapoi and Allia Bay in Northern Kenya. They are the earliest Australopithecus species, living during the Plio-Pleistocene era.
The Hominini, or hominins, form a taxonomic tribe of the subfamily Homininae ("hominines"). Hominini includes the extant genera Homo (humans) and Pan, but excludes the genus Gorilla (gorillas).
Human taxonomy is the classification of the human species within zoological taxonomy. The systematic genus, Homo, is designed to include both anatomically modern humans and extinct varieties of archaic humans. Current humans have been designated as subspecies Homo sapiens, differentiated according to some from the direct ancestor, Homo sapiens idaltu.
Australopithecus bahrelghazali is an extinct species of australopithecine discovered in 1995 at Koro Toro, Bahr el Gazel, Chad, existing around 3.5 million years ago in the Pliocene. It is the first and only australopithecine known from Central Africa, and demonstrates that this group was widely distributed across Africa as opposed to being restricted to East and southern Africa as previously thought. The validity of A. bahrelghazali has not been widely accepted, in favour of classifying the specimens as A. afarensis, a better known Pliocene australopithecine from East Africa, because of the anatomical similarity and the fact that A. bahrelghazali is known only from 3 partial jawbones and an isolated premolar. The specimens inhabited a lakeside grassland environment with sparse tree cover, possibly similar to the modern Okavango Delta, and similarly predominantly ate C4 savanna foods—such as grasses, sedges, storage organs, or rhizomes—and to a lesser degree also C3 forest foods—such as fruits, flowers, pods, or insects. However, the teeth seem ill-equipped to process C4 plants, so its true diet is unclear.
Yves Coppens is a French anthropologist and co-discoverer of the fossil known as "Lucy". A graduate from the University of Rennes and Sorbonne, he has studied ancient hominids and has had multiple published works on this topic, and has also produced a film. On Saturday, 18 October 2014, Professor Coppens was named an Ordinary Member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences by Pope Francis.
Michel Brunet is a French paleontologist and a professor at the Collège de France. In 2001 Brunet announced the discovery in Central Africa of the skull and jaw remains of a late Miocene hominid nicknamed Toumaï. These remains may predate the earliest previously known hominid remains, Lucy, by over three million years; however, this conclusion is the subject of a significant controversy.
"Little Foot" is the nickname given to a nearly complete Australopithecus fossil skeleton found in 1994–1998 in the cave system of Sterkfontein, South Africa. Originally nicknamed "little foot" in 1995 when four ankle bones in a museum collection were sufficient to ascertain that the individual had been able to walk upright, the reminder of the skeleton was subsequently located in the cave from which the ankle bones had been collected. Because the bones were completely embedded in concrete-like rock, their extremely difficult and tedious extraction took around 15 years to recover what proved to be the most complete skeleton of the early hominin lineage leading to humans. Dating of the specimen has proved controversial, with estimates ranging from 2.2 to 3.5 million years old, and its taxonomic placement is likewise disputed.
Koro Toro is a settlement in southern Borkou-Ennedi-Tibesti Region in Chad. It hosts the Koro Toro Airport and a "notorious" maximum security desert prison used by the Chadian government to detain captured fighters of Boko Haram and Chadian rebel groups. According to the Chadian opposition, Koro Toro is factually a penal colony.
The Hominidae, whose members are known as great apes or hominids, are a taxonomic family of primates that includes eight extant species in four genera: Pongo ; Gorilla ; Pan ; and Homo, of which only modern humans remain.
Vulpes skinneri is a species of extinct fox in the genus Vulpes of the early Pleistocene, identified based on fossil remains dated to about 2 million years ago. The species is known from a single partial skeleton discovered in the Malapa Fossil Site at the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site in South Africa and is associated with the fossil hominin remains of Australopithecus sediba. The fossils have been dated to between 1.977 and 1.980 million years ago. Hartstone-Rose and colleagues described the remains as a newly discovered species of fox, which they named skinneri after the African mammalogist John Skinner. It dated from the early Pleistocene, and was identified based on fossil remains dated to about 2 million years ago.
Australopithecus deyiremeda is an extinct species of australopithecine from Woranso–Mille, Afar Region, Ethiopia, about 3.5–3.3 million years ago during the Pliocene. Because it is known only from three partial jawbones, it is unclear if these specimens indeed represent a unique species or belong to the much better known A. afarensis. A. deyiremeda is distinguished by its forward facing cheek bones and small cheek teeth compared to those of other early hominins. It is unclear if a partial foot specimen exhibiting a dextrous big toe can be assigned to A. deyiremeda. A. deyiremeda lived in a mosaic environment featuring both open grasslands and lake- or riverside forests, and anthropologist Fred Spoor suggests it may have been involved in the Kenyan Lomekwi stone tool industry typically assigned to Kenyanthropus. A. deyiremeda coexisted with A. afarensis, and they may have exhibited niche partitioning to avoid competing with each other for the same resources, such as by relying on different fallback foods during leaner times.
