Australopithecus afarensis is one of the best known of early human species due to several major discoveries including a set of fossil footprints and a fairly complete fossil skeleton of a female nicknamed 'Lucy.' Its remains were initially discovered in Hadar and Dikika Ethiopia in 1974 by Donald Johanson (Hogenboom, 2014). The species was officially named in 1978 when they could not fit with any earlier species. Species discovered earlier in the 1930s such as the Taung child found in South Africa in 1924 were included in this species (Dorey & Blaxland, 2015).
A. afarensis roamed the earth about 3.85 and 2.95 million years ago which makes them the longest surviving early human species with a timeline of about 900,000 years before their extinction. That is more than four times as Homo sapiens has been on earth. This long existence is in part tied to its physical form which has been identified as having been part ape and part human (Hogenboom, 2014). Its face is ape-like with a flat nose, projecting jaws and a small brain weighing between 430- 500 cubic centimeters. This is a bit larger than an adult chimpanzee and a third the size of a modern human. It was bipedal and walked upright but had long strong arms adapted to tree climbing. This may have been responsible for their long existence as they could live both on trees and land even with changing climatic conditions. Males were larger than female with a height of about 4ft 11" as compared to the average female height of 3ft 5". Males weighed 42 kg while females 29kg (Institute of Human Origins, 2008) .
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Bones with markings made from stone have been found near the fossilized remains of this species. Although this shows that they used stones as tools, there is no evidence to show that they made these tools themselves (Hogenboom, 2014). They lived in small family groups as per the evidence found by a fossil of a family group of nine adults and four children discovered in Hadar, Ethiopia referred to as the ‘first family.' (Dorey & Blaxland, 2015)
Over 300 individuals have been placed under this species since its discovery, including the 40% skeleton fossil nicknamed Lucy, the ‘first family,' Lucy’s big bother nicknamed Kadanuumuu found in Afar, Ethiopia, and Selam or ‘Lucy’s baby’ a partial baby skeleton found in Dikika. About 70 footprints from this species were also found in Laetoli, Tanzania by an archeological team led by Mary Leaky in 1976 (Dorey & Blaxland, 2015).
References
Dorey, F., & Blaxland, B. (2015). Australopithecus afarensis - Australian Museum. Retrieved from https://australianmuseum.net.au/australopithecus-afarensis
Hogenboom, M. (2014). The 'Lucy' fossil rewrote the story of humanity. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20141127-lucy-fossil-revealed-our-origins
Institute of Human Origins. (2008). Australopithecus afarensis essay | Becoming Human. Retrieved from http://www.becominghuman.org/node/australopithecus-afarensis-essay
