What was the cranial capacity for AU Platyops?
400–500 cc
The cranial capacity of K. platyops is also suspect due to the reconstruction but if accurate, it was fairly high relative to other species of the time, at 400–500 cc.
What is the most significant finding in the evolution of australopithecines?
The adaptation to bipedal locomotion (1) is of particular significance in human evolution. All australopithecines possess anatomical characteristics of the pelvis, femur and spinal column that facilitate bipedal locomotion.
What characteristics were indicative of members of the genus Australopithecus?
afarensis had both ape and human characteristics: members of this species had apelike face proportions (a flat nose, a strongly projecting lower jaw) and braincase (with a small brain, usually less than 500 cubic centimeters — about 1/3 the size of a modern human brain), and long, strong arms with curved fingers …
What did kenyanthropus Platyops eat?
But scientists have now found that this changed 3.5 million years ago in the species Australopithecus afarensis and Kenyanthropus platyops. Their diet included grasses, sedges, and possibly animals that ate such plants. They also tended to live in the open savannahs of Africa.
What was the location of Australopithecus or kenyanthropus Platyops?
Lake Turkana
Working in the Lake Turkana region of northern Kenya in 1998 and 1999, a research team led by scientist Meave Leakey found a cranium and other fossil remains of a 3.5 million year old early human that has a mixture of features unseen in other early human fossils.
What is the significance of Kenyanthropus a 3.5 million year old fossil that Maeve Leakey discovered in Kenya in 1999?
What is the significance of Kenyanthropus, a 3.5-million-year-old fossil that Maeve Leakey discovered in Kenya in 1999? It suggests the possibility that at least two hominin lineages existed as far back as 3.5 million years ago.
What did australopithecines achieve?
The species is thought to be either a direct ancestor of genus Homo or a close relative of such an ancestor. It is also the first species that made scientists realize that upright walking evolved before large brains.
Is Australopithecus a human ancestor?
The fossil record seems to indicate that Australopithecus is ancestral to Homo and modern humans. Earlier fossils, such as Orrorin tugenensis, indicate bipedalism around six million years ago, around the time of the split between humans and chimpanzees indicated by genetic studies.
What is unique about Australopithecus africanus?
africanus had a rounder cranium housing a larger brain and smaller teeth, but it also had some ape-like features including relatively long arms and a strongly sloping face that juts out from underneath the braincase with a pronounced jaw.