"Australopithecus afarensis" and A. Africanus: Critique and an alternative hypothesis

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dc.contributor.authorTobias, Phillip V.
dc.date.accessioned2015-01-09T10:51:49Z
dc.date.available2015-01-09T10:51:49Z
dc.date.issued1980
dc.descriptionMain articleen_ZA
dc.description.abstractDuring the seventies, a succession of East African discoveries has been claimed to represent the "true" ancestral line of modern man, thus relegating A. africanus, and especially its Transvaal subspecies, to a subordinate role in hominid phylogeny. The latest such attempt has been the claim of Johanson and his co-workers that the 3, 7-2,6 My-old hominids of Laetoli in Tanzania and of Hadar in Ethiopia represent a new species, "A. afarensis", which led to H. habilis, whilst A. africanus represents early stages in a specialized side-branch leading to A. robustus and A. boisei. A critique of the diagnostic criteria of "A. afarensis" reveals that on the available evidence, the Laetoli and Hadar fossils cannot be distinguished at specific level from A. africanus transvaalensis. Furthermore, it is by no means clear that the pooling for statistical and comparative purposes of the Hadar and Laetoli fossils is justified. Hominids from the two sites are separated by about 800 000 years and about 1 600 km as well as by morphometric differences. As an alternative hypothesis, it is proposed that the Laetoli and Hadar hominids belong to the same lineage as that represented by the hominids of Makapansgat Members 3 and 4 and of Sterkfontein Member 4. Moreover, it is hypothesized that the Laetoli and Hadar hominids cannot be separated morphologically from A. africanus and that they represent two new subspecies of that species. Since "A. afarensis" is tied to a Laetoli specimen as holotype, only the Laetoli specimens should be designated A. africanus afarensis (though A. africanus tanzaniensis suggested by the author in 1978 would have been a more appropriate nomen) and the Hadar fossils A. africanus aethiopicus. These newest East African discoveries afford strong confirmation of the hypothesis that A. africanus is the common ancestor of the two later hominid lineages, A. robustuslboisei and Homo, leading from H. habilis through H. erectus to H. sapiens.en_ZA
dc.description.sponsorshipThe Council for Scientific and Industrial research, the University of the Witwatersrand Council Research Committee, and the Bernard Price Institution for Palaeontological researchen_ZA
dc.identifier.citationNoneen_ZA
dc.identifier.issn0078-8554
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10539/16335
dc.language.isoenen_ZA
dc.publisherBernard Price Institute for Palaeontological Researchen_ZA
dc.relation.ispartofseriesNone;
dc.subjectAustralopithecus; africanus; afarensisen_ZA
dc.title"Australopithecus afarensis" and A. Africanus: Critique and an alternative hypothesisen_ZA
dc.typeArticleen_ZA
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Volume 23 1980