Australopithecus anamensis

Identifying the earliest member of the human tribe (Hominini) is difficult because the predecessors of modern humans become increasingly apelike as the fossil record is followed back through time. They resemble what would be expected in the common ancestor of humans and apes…

…of the genus Australopithecus is Au. anamensis, which was discovered in northern Kenya near Lake Turkana at Kanapoi and Allia Bay. The species was first described in 1995 after an analysis of isolated teeth, upper and lower jaws, fragments of a cranium, and a tibia unearthed at the discovery sites.…

…addition, the leg bone of Au. anamensis from northern Kenya (4.2–3.9 mya) attests to its bipedalism.

In northern Kenya Au. anamensis lived in dry open woodland or bushland with a gallery forest along a nearby river. In central Chad the northernmost and westernmost species, Au. bahrelghazali, appears to have lived in a mosaic of open and wooded biomes near a river. Mammalian fossils from…

…known for its fossils of Australopithecus anamensis, an early hominin (member of the human lineage) dating to between 3.9 and 4.2 million years ago. Among these fossils is a relatively complete shinbone with features indicating that A. anamensis walked on two legs. Skulls and teeth of this species have also…