Australopithecus Afarensis

Hello ! I am Lucy ! I am an Australopithecus Afarensis

Let's begin !

By Julie PELLEN and Alexane COLLET--BENDA

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Ethiopia

I am coming from Africa, mostly on the eastern coast. You have found remainings of my kind in Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania.

Kenya

Info

Tanzania

4 Mya

3 Mya

2 Mya

Australopithecus anamerensis

Australopithecus bahrelghazali

Afarensis

Australopithecus genus (4.4 to 2 Mya)

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Name : Lucy Meaning : Beatles' song Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds Scientific name :AL 288-1 Age : young adult Place of birth : Ethiopia Cause of death : Controversial Discovery : 1974 by D. Johanson. Her excavation took three weeks.

This is my little presentation

This is my skeleton. You can see it in the Naturhistorisches Museum Basel

Name : Selam (female) Meaning : Peace in amharic Scientific name : DIK-1-1 Age : 3 years Place of birth : Ethiopia Cause of death : Naturally or accidentally by floods Discovery : 2006, by Zeresenay Alemseged, 4km from where Lucy was discovered. Her surname is Lucy's baby.

Hello ! I am Selam

Name : Kadanuumuu Meaning : 'Big Man' in the Afar language Scientific name : KSD-VP-1/1 Age : Adult Place of birth : Ethiopia Cause of death : unknown Discovery : 2005, by Yohannes Haile-Selassie His discovery confirmed that Australopitecus Afarensis was fully bipedal.

Nice to meet you ! I am Kadanuumuu

Male

Male and female are very different. We call that sexual dimorphism.

1,7m- 64kg

=> a mixture of ape-like and human-like body features

1m - 25kg

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Fruits

Seeds

Leaves

Roots

Their diet slightly changed as they evolved, allowing them to chew harder food.

Nuts

Let me show you what we eat

Small vertebrates (occasionally)

Insects

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Climb

Walk

Lucy was competent at walking regularly upright on two legs. However, it may not have walked in exactly the same way as we do or been able to walk long distances efficiently.

It is likely that the species, particularly the smaller females, spent a significant amount of time moving around in trees. The larger males were probably less arboreal. Australopithecus Afarensis May have looked for food in the trees and on the ground, and probably retreated to the trees at night to avoid predators and for a good night's sleep.

Let me show you how we move.

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To remember

- Lucy around 3.18 Mya - Sexual bimorphism - Presence of bipedalism + small canine teeth = hominin lineage -Walk regularly but climb into trees thanks to their long arms mostly at night

I am still very mysterious. You don't know my social behaviour or the resaons of my extinction.

Australopithecus africanus from South Africa was discovered before afarensis but the discovery of Afarensis changed our understanding of human evolution. It confirmed that our ancient relatives usually walked upright, and that this feature of the human lineage occurred long before the evolution of bigger brains.

Other remains found

Other remains have been found, but those are only little parts of bodies.

Among those, there were the skull of a male, with a brain capacity of 550 centimeter squar, and a knee joint.

These mandibules are the holotype of the Afarensis species. This means that the species was at first definite thanks to its characteristics. It is what served for the identification of the other remains found.