Kadanuumuu
Kadanuumuu ("Big Man" in the Afar language) is the nickname of KSD-VP-1/1. It is a 3.58-million-year-old partial Australopithecus afarensis fossil discovered in the Afar Region of Ethiopia in 2005, by a team led by Yohannes Haile-Selassie, curator of physical anthropology at The Cleveland Museum of Natural History. Based on skeletal analysis, the fossil is believed to conclusively show that the species was fully bipedal.[1]
At more than five feet in stature, Kadanuumuu is much taller than the famous "Lucy" fossil of the same species discovered in the 1970s, and is approximately 400,000 years older.[1] Among other characteristics, Kadanuumuu's scapula (part of the shoulder blade), the oldest discovered to date for a hominid, is comparable to that of modern humans, suggesting that the species was land rather than tree-based.[1] Not all researchers agree with this conclusion.[2]
See also
References
- ^ a b c Rex Dalton (2010-06-20). "Africa's next top hominid: Ancient human relative could walk upright". Nature.
- ^ Ker Than (2010-06-21). ""Lucy" Kin Pushes Back Evolution of Upright Walking?". National Geographic.
External links
- An early Australopithecus afarensis postcranium from Woranso-Mille, Ethiopia -- Original peer-reviewed paper.
- Images of the fossil and its excavation
