Everything about Australopithecus Africanus totally explained
Raymond Dart was at
Taung near
Kimberley,
South Africa in
1924 when one of his colleagues spotted a few bone fragments and the cranium on the desk of a
lime worker. The skull seemed like an odd
ape creature sharing human traits such as eye orbits, teeth, and, most importantly, the hole at the base of the skull over the spinal column (the
foramen magnum) indicating a human-like posture. Dart assigned the specimen the name
Australopithecus africanus ("southern ape of Africa"). This was the first time the word
Australopithecus was assigned to any hominid. Dart claimed that the skull must have been an intermediate species between ape and humans, but his claim about the
Taung Child was rejected by the scientific community at the time due to the belief that a large cranial capacity must precede bipedal locomotion, In
1938 Broom classified an adult
endocranial cast having a brain capacity of 485 cc, which had been found by
G. W. Barlow, as
Plesianthropus transvaalensis. On
April 17,
1947, Broom and
John T. Robinson discovered a skull belonging to a middle-aged female, Sts 5, while blasting at
Sterkfontein. Broom classified it also as
Plesianthropus transvaalensis, and it was dubbed Mrs. Ples by the press (though the skull is now thought to have belonged to a young male). The lack of facial projection in comparison to apes was noted by Raymond Dart (including from Taung Child), a trait in common with more advanced hominines. Both fossils were later classified as
A. africanus.
Morphology and interpretations
Like
A. afarensis,
A. africanus the
South African counterpart was generally similar in many traits, a bipedal
hominin with arms slightly larger than the legs (a physical trait also found in
chimpanzees). Despite its slightly more human-like cranial features, seen for example in the craniums
Mr. Ples and
Sts 71, other more primitive features including ape-like curved fingers for tree climbing are also present.
Due to other more primitive features visible on
A. africanus, some researchers believe the hominin, instead of being a direct ancestor of more modern hominins, evolved into
Paranthropus. The one particular robust australopithecine seen as a descendent of
A. africanus is
Paranthropus robustus. Both
P. robustus and
A. africanus craniums seem very alike despite the more heavily built features of
P. robustus that are adaptations for heavy chewing like a
gorilla.
A. africanus, on the other hand, had a cranium which quite closely resembled that of a chimp, yet both their brains measure about 400 cc to 500 cc and probably had an ape-like intelligence. However, the famous
Leakey family have argued in favor of the African descent since most hominid discoveries such as the
Laetoli footprints were uncovered in
Eastern Africa.
With regards to bipedalism
Recent evidence regarding modern human
sexual dimorphism (physical differences between men and women) in the
lumbar spine has been seen in pre-modern primates such as
A. africanus. This dimorphism has been seen as an evolutionary adaptation of females to better bear lumbar load during
pregnancy, an adaptation that non-bipedal primates wouldn't need to make.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Australopithecus Africanus'.
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