KSD-VP-1/1

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

KSD-VP-1/1 is the scientific name for the fossil part of a skeleton of a 3.58 million year old, presumably male, individual of Australopithecus afarensis . The find was nicknamed Kadanuumuu ("Big Man" in the Afar language ) by its discoverers . The fossil was recovered in 2005 in the area of ​​the Woranso-Mille excavation site in the Afar region of Ethiopia by a team led by Yohannes Haile-Selassie . The designation KSD-VP-1 refers to the exact location, the Korsi Dora vertebrate locality 1 .

Among other things, the entire shoulder blade , parts of the pelvis and parts of the left femur and the left tibia including their end pieces in the area of ​​the knee joint , as well as fragments of the humerus and ulna including its end pieces in the area of ​​the elbow joint have been preserved . Based on the morphological features of these bones, the researchers came to the conclusion that KSD-VP-1/1 - almost like an anatomically modern human ( Homo sapiens ) - walked upright on two legs. From this it was concluded that KSD-VP-1/1 lived more on the ground than on trees during its lifetime.

Zeresenay Alemseged , who recovered the unusually completely preserved skeleton of the juvenile female Australopithecus afarensis DIK 1-1 in the Dikika site in the Afar triangle in 2000 , objected that KSD-VP-1/1 might not belong to Australopithecus at all afarensis heard. He pointed out that DIK 1-1 could walk upright; However, the very well-preserved right shoulder blade is more similar to that of a gorilla than a modern human and indicates that DIK 1-1 often hung in trees with arms stretched up over the head.

literature

  • Lydia Pyne: Seven Skeletons. The Evolution of the World's Most Famous Human Fossils. Viking, New York 2016, pp. 216–222, ISBN 978-0-525-42985-2 ,

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Yohannes Haile-Selassie et al .: An early Australopithecus afarensis postcranium from Woranso-Mille, Ethiopia. In: PNAS . Volume 107, No. 27, 2010, pp. 12121-12126, doi: 10.1073 / pnas.1004527107
  2. ^ A b Rex Dalton: Africa's next top hominid: Ancient human relative could walk upright. , Nature. June 20, 2010  (with a picture of the fossil)
  3. ↑ Ker Than: "Lucy" Kin Pushes Back Evolution of Upright Walking? , National Geographic. June 21, 2010. 
  4. ↑ David J. Green and Zeresenay Alemseged : Australopithecus afarensis Scapular Ontogeny, Function, and the Role of Climbing in Human Evolution. In: Science . Volume 338, No. 6106, 2012, pp. 514-517, doi: 10.1126 / science.1227123