Wits Evolutionary Studies Institute (ESI)
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Item Taxonomic status of the skull A.l.444-2 from the Pliocene of Hadar, Ethiopia(Bernard Price Institute for Palaeontological Research, 1999) Ferguson, Walter WA nearly complete hominid skull, A.L.444-2, from the Pliocene of Hadar in Ethiopia, has been attributed to Australopithecus afarensis Johanson, White & Coppens 1978. Comparative morphological analysis indicates that it may not conform to this species. Cranial and dental morphology and measurements of A.L.444-2 agree more closely with those of A. africanus Dart 1925, to which it could be reassigned.Item Taxonomic status of the partial calvaria a.l. 333-45 from the Late Pliocene of Hadar, Ethiopia(Bernard Price Institute for Palaeontological Research, 1992) Ferguson, Walter WThe taxonomic status of a partial calvaria, A.L. 333-45, from the late Pliocene of Hadar, in Ethiopia, classified as a hominid and paratype of "Australopithcus afarensis" Johanson, White and Coppens 1978 is reassessed. Its total morphological pattern and adaptive affinities agree with the Pongidae, and do not exhibit a single unequivocal hominid character. The evidence in fact suggests that A.L. 333-45 represents a relatively generalized ape, the only pongid calvaria known from the late Pliocene of Africa: and may be the first skull found of Praeanthropus africanus (Weinert), 1950. Moreover, this indicates that the fossils assigned to "Australopithecus afarensis'' do not represent a single taxon: and that the reconstruction of the skull of a male "A. afarensis" seems to be a composite of pongid and hominid fossils.