Australopithecus Afarensis

Cranium C
The oldest of the six craniums is the Australopithecus afarensis. Found in the Rift Valley of East Africa, the Australopithecus afarensis dates back 3 to 3.5 million years ago. Their body shape is similar to chimps but had bipedal features including human-like carrying angle of knee, shallow broad pelvis, slightly curved fingers and toe bones, and the big toe was in line with the other toes. Although they had this bipedal locomotion, it is still probable that they spent a lot of time in the trees. They had a small brain size in the ape range of 450 cc. Their skull was prognathic with the forum magnum placed anteriorly. There is no evidence of tool use for this species. The most famous remains found is a partial female skeleton known …show more content…
Their postcranial remains demonstrated a similar set of characteristics observed in A. afarensis, including the characteristic angle between the femur and tibia and the broad pelvis with a posteriorly oriented ilium. However, there were several important postcranial differences between A. afarensis and A. africanus. First, the big toe of A. africanus appears to be considerably different from the rest of the foot, although not completely opposable as is observed in great apes. This contrasts sharply with A. afarensis whose big toe was not at all divergent. Thus, it is possible that an evolutionary reversal took place in A. africanus. Like A. afarensis, A. africanus had a relatively large forearm, indicating an adaptation to tree-climbing. However, the forearm was even larger relative to the leg and upper arm in A. africanus which might indicate an even stronger connection to life in the …show more content…
This species was found near modern day Beijing, China but originated in Africa. Their body size and shape tended to be stockier and shorter than modern day humans. The low braincase was “walnut shaped” with a cranial capacity of 1000cc. They had thick jaws with large rooted molar teeth that indicated a more high quality diet consisting of meats and fruits. This species was associated with stone tools including the hand ax. Burnt stones and animal bones, charcoal and ash deposits indicate these people may have used fire about 500,000 years ago but it is difficult to prove whether this use was

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