1. Australopiths and Pre-Australopiths

2. Australopiths Best known group of African hominid species Two groups
Australopithecus (gracile forms)
Paranthropus (robust forms)
Lived from mya
They are all clearly bipedal
Relatively small brains
They have large teeth, particularly the back teeth, with thick to very thick enamel on molars.

3. Australopithecus afarensis
Donald Johanson and his team (including Tim White) discovered Lucy in the Afar region of Ethiopia
Discovered in 1974
First skeleton of an Early hominid until last year

4. Showed bipedalism preceded encephalization
But not completely the same as us
Cranial capacity 350cc
3.2 mya
Showed bipedalism preceded encephalization

5. Mary Leakey discovers Laetoli Footprints
Shows 54 individuals walking upright
Radioactive dating places these footprints at 3.59 to 3.75mya

6. Paranthropus boisei 2.6 – 1.8 mya Huge jaw Large molars
Large sagital crest
Cranial capacity 530cc
First discovered by anthropologist Mary Leakey on July 17, 1959, at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania,

7. Paranthropus (Robust Australopiths)
Many different species and fossils from all over Africa
Large, deep, lower jaws.
Large molars
Sagital crest
What do think this means?

8. Paranthropus aethiopicus
2.5 mya
Lake Turkana, Kenya
Cranial capacity 410cc

9. Pre-Australopiths (7.0-4.4 mya)
Sahelanthropus
Found in Chad at Toros-Menalla 2001
Faunal Dating places it around 7 mya
Small Braincase no larger than modern chimpanzee
Small vertical face is hominid like feature
What ape like features do you see?

10. Ardipithecus ramidus
Discovered in 1994 by Tim White (U.C. Berkley) and Lovejoy (Kent State)
In 1994 just found portion of jaw and a few teeth
Found in Middle Awash of Ethiopia
Complete find published in Science October 2009
Mostly complete

11. Bipedal
Wouldn’t be able to run long distances
Grasping toe
Small brain
Small canines
Cranial capacity cc
Dated Volcanic Ash above and below fossils
4.4 mya