Anatomical features - Essay Example

College: Anthropology Paleoanthropologists have been doing exemplary work from the past to help us understand what the world might have looked like in the past and who inhabitants might have been. They are looking for proofs to convince us that the origin of humankind is evolution. They have roamed all over the world to look for the remains of the past inhabitants of the universe and the evidence that proved their existence. The main source of their work and what have kept them moving are the fossil bones that are found in various parts of the world.

These include fossil bone found at Laetoli in Tanzania that proved the existence of Australopithecus afarencis (Esteban 2007). The “Lucy” skeleton found at hadar Ethiopia and Dikika also found in Ethiopia. Other features like Footprints and others discovered by paleoanthropologist proved that certain creatures lived on earth millions of years ago before we were born. Australopithecus afarensis is one of the extinct creatures discovered by Paleoanthropologists. Its remains were found in Ethiopia and it lived between close to 4 million years ago (Walter 2002).

It was slenderly built. It is believed that A. afarensis was more closely related to modern human species, Homo sapiensThe most famous fossil is the partial skeleton named Lucy (3.2 million years old) found by Donald Johanson and colleagues (Esteban 2007). In life, Lucy had a height of roughly 1.1 meters and its weight was about 30 kilograms. Lucys skeleton gave signs that she was bipedal. The shape of lucys pelvis was a good reason to believe that she was bipedal. Another proves is femurs angle from hip socket to the knee joint, her skull was the same size as that of a chimpanzee (Esteban 2007).

Lucy had one pelvic bone and made it difficult to tell the gender The feet of Lucy were far apart, and each hind leg descends straight to the ground beneath the hip socket. The tibiae drop straight to the ground. Lucy teeth were resemblance to that of modern human. She had canine same size like that of human being. Fingers were curved in such away that it suggests they grasp branches as they climb. Its iliac blades were short and seem wide. Its sacrum was wide and positioned directly behind the hip joint.

Lucy had had much smaller and more v-shaped jaws. The footprints found in volcanic ash were similar to features of human leg phalanges and proved o be a creature similar to human.Ardipithecus is a fossil hominoid, described by its discoverers as a very early hominin genus. Aramidus lived about 4.4 million years ago. It was Like other most primitive creatures. It difference with other is that it had a grasping [hallux] or big toe adapted for locomotion in the trees (Walter 2002). Ardipithecus had reduced canine teeth.

Its brain was small and comparable in size to that of the modern chimpanzee. Its teeth were not specialized suggesting it was omnivore. Ardipithecus species stood upright. It had brain capacity similar to that of chimpanzees. Female height was about 120cm (Walter 2002). bones particularly in the midcarpal joint provided flexibility and the bones in palm were short (Walter 2002). These features point to the fact that this species was not a knuckle-walker. This also shows that the palms could support the body weight as it traverses the branches.

Finger bones were long and curved for grasping branches. Upper and lower leg bones have features that support that they were bipedal. Their feet lack arches and were flat suggesting that they couldn’t run or walk for long. Its pelvis upper blade appears short and broad. Jaws and teeth were more similar to that of humans. It has larger canines and molars canines were less projected and smaller than those of other apes. Upper canines were shaped like diamonds which is a feature like that of Australopithecus afarensis.

Skull was above the spinal column, indicating this species was bipedal the cranial base is short from front to back, indicating the head balanced on top of the spine. Their face was small.Work citedEsteban E. S. The Last Human: A Guide to Twenty-Two Species of Extinct Humans. Yale: Yale University Press, 2007Walter, C. The Primate Fossil Record: Volume 33 of Cambridge studies in biological anthropology. London: Cambridge University Press, 2002