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Hypothetical ancestors of hominids: commonalities and differences. Hominid is an intermediate link between ape and man Ancient hominids

12.10.2023

The oldest hominids are usually considered Australopithecus(Australopithecinae). They were a very peculiar group, since they could equally well be described as bipedal apes or monkey-headed humans. The complexity of the position of australopithecines among primates lies in the fact that their structure mosaically combines features characteristic of both modern apes and humans. How to treat this combination of signs?

The Australopithecus skull is similar to that of a chimpanzee. Characterized by large jaws, massive bony ridges for attachment of chewing muscles, a small brain and a large, flattened face. Australopithecus teeth were very large, but the fangs were short, and the structural details of the teeth were more human-like than ape-like.

The remains of the oldest primates, which can be classified as early australopithecines, were found in the Republic of Chad at Toros Menalla and named Sahelanthropus tchadensis(Sahelanthropus). The whole skull received the popular name "Tumai". The dating of the finds is about 6-7 million years ago.

The history of the description of the skeleton of Ardipithecus is the clearest example of scientific integrity. After all, 15 years passed between its discovery - in 1994 - and description - at the end of 2009! The unique find was announced immediately, but the details remained unknown all this time, so that some researchers even began to doubt: “was there a boy?”

The oldest stone tools are known from several sites in Ethiopia - Gona, Shungura, Hadar - and date back to 2.5-2.7 million years ago. At the same time, new species of hominids arose that had a large brain and were already assigned to the genus Homo. However, there was another group of late australopithecines that deviated from the line leading to humans - massive australopithecines.

The oldest representatives of the hominin subfamily ( Homininae), which includes modern humans, are known from deposits about 2.5 million years ago. They are often called "earlyHomo" , emphasizing the similarities with humans and differences from monkeys.

The first among real people were archanthropes.
Sometimes all hominins are grouped into one genus Homo, to which modern man belongs. However, the difference between the most ancient representatives of the subfamily - the archanthropes - and you and me is so striking that many anthropologists are inclined to identify for them a special genus Pithecanthropus ( Pithecanthropus).

In the period of time from approximately 500-400 to 130 thousand years ago, an extremely diverse population lived on Earth, with many transitional features - primitive and more progressive. Different parts of the world were inhabited by people very different from each other. Often hominids from the oldest half of this interval are considered as Homo erectus, representatives of the second half - together with paleoanthropes. However, their special intermediate appearance has always been noted and led to great taxonomic and phylogenetic disputes.

Name	Habitat	Culture	Peculiarities	Appearance
	6-7 million years ago in Central Africa. The skull of Toumay was discovered in the Durab desert in the north-west of the Republic of Chad, near the southern edge of the Sahara, during excavations in the town of Toros Menella in 2001.			The facial part of Tumay combined primitive and advanced features. Tumay had rather weak fangs, and her teeth were noticeably different from other finds. The size of the brain was small (~ 350 cm? - like that of a chimpanzee), and the skull was elongated, which is characteristic of modern apes. Such a mixture of characters indicates the earliest stages of the group’s evolution.
Orrorin tugenensis (or Praeanthropus tugenensis) is the only species of the Orrorin genus	The remains were found in Kenya and lay between two layers of volcanic ash, thanks to which they are dated relatively accurately: between 5.8 and 6.1 million years ago, during the Miocene era. orrorins lived in dry evergreen forests	The shape of the molars and fangs is characteristic of animals that eat fruit and, occasionally, meat.		the shape of the remains of the femur indicates upright posture, and the bones of the right arm indicate their suitability for climbing trees. Orrorins were comparable in size to modern chimpanzees.
Australopithecus afarensis (lat. Australopithecus afarensis)	about 4 million years ago. went extinct 2.5 million years ago discovered in the Northern Afar Triangle in Ethiopia. But the remains of Australopithecus afarensis were also discovered in Omo (Ethiopia), Laetoli (Tanzania), and Kenya. He also lived in Gadara, Middle Awash, Baringo.	Most likely led an arboreal lifestyle. Australopithecus afarans were primarily plant-gatherers, and may have made tools from wood and stone to separate meat from the bones of animals killed by predators. Most likely, they lived in families consisting of a main male, to whom several females were subordinate.	Australopithecus afarensis is the smallest species of australopithecus. Australopithecus from Afar walked on slightly bent legs, had curved finger and toe bones, and hips similar to those of a chimpanzee. Females had significantly closer hips than modern women.	He probably had dark skin and was covered in hair. Males were larger than females. Height is 1-1.3 m, body weight is about 30 kg. Brain ~380-430 cm?. The arms are longer than those of a human. The dimensions of the skull are relatively small, the braincase is small, and the forehead is low. There is a supraorbital ridge, the nose is flat, the jaws with massive molars protrude forward, and there is no chin protrusion.
Ground monkey	5.5-4.4 million years ago. Discovered in Ethiopia in 1994
Australopithecus anamenensis	4.2-3.9 million years ago
Australopithecus africanus (lat. Australopithecus africanus)	about 3.5--2.4 million years ago. The main locations of the remains of this species are the limestone caves of South Africa: Taung (1924), Sterkfontein (1935), Makapansgat (1948), Gladysvale (1992).		Unlike Australopithecus afarensis, it had a more ape-like skeleton, but a more voluminous skull. they were completely upright, although they spent a lot of time in the trees.	The length of the arms was slightly longer than the length of the legs. the fingers of this type are long and twisted The height of African Australopithecus was about 1-1.5 meters, weight 20-45 kilograms, brain volume - about 425-450 cubic centimeters. [
Australopithecus ethiopicus - Ethiopian paranthropus	discovered in Southern and Eastern Africa: Koobi Fora, Olduvai, Lokaley and many other excavation sites. They lived from 2.6 to 1 million years ago.	They eat only plant foods.	They evolved into 2 species: robustus - Australopithecus massive in South Africa and boisei in East Africa.	He had massive jaws and teeth. A ridge stretched along the top of the skull, to which very powerful chewing muscles were attached. On average, brain volume is 42 cm3 They were distinguished by their powerful physique.
Australopithecus gracile	Equatorial zone existed approximately from 4 to 2.5 million years ago. In Kenya, Tanzania and Ethiopia	During the day, Australopithecines roamed the savannah or forests, along the banks of rivers and lakes, and in the evening they climbed trees, as modern chimpanzees do. Australopithecines lived in small herds or families and were capable of moving quite long distances. They ate mainly plant foods	The first tools were made	Gracile australopithecines were upright creatures about 1-1.5 meters tall. Together with the fairly modern structure of the legs and pelvis, the arms of Australopithecus were somewhat elongated, and the fingers were adapted for climbing trees. gracile australopithecus had a very ape-like skull, combined with the rest of the skeleton that was almost modern. The Australopithecus brain was similar to that of apes in both size and shape.
A clever man (lat. Homo habilis)	2.6--2.5 million years ago, existed for more than half a million years. Found in Oldway Gorge, South Africa and Kenya	The diet was mainly vegetarian. Homo habilis is apparently the first creature to consciously make tools for labor and hunting	differed from australopithecines in the structure of the pelvis, which ensured more advanced bipedality and the birth of more “big-headed” cubs. in Homo Habilis, a redistribution of the brain lobes occurs - the more primitive occipital lobe of the brain decreases in favor of an increase in the more progressive lobes - the frontal, parietal, temporal with associative lobes. It differed from Australopithecines in the structure of the skull - the skull was expanded in the infraorbital and parieto-occipital regions. The size of teeth decreases and tooth enamel becomes less thick.	The brain mass of this hominid was 650 grams, the size of the brain of Homo habilis was 500-640 cm?. Height was 1.0-1.5 m, weight - about 30-50 kg. His face had an archaic shape with supraorbital ridges, a flat nose and protruding jaws. The head of Homo habilis became more rounded than that of the Australopithecus; the brain also became larger, although it was still only half the size of modern humans. The jaws were less massive than those of Australopithecus; the bones of the arms and hips seem more modern, and the legs had a very “modern” shape. Homo habilis individuals had noticeable sexual dimorphism - females had wider hips compared to males.
Erectus (lat. Homo erectus - erect man; obsolete name: archanthropes) a form that received the name hobbits in literature.	It is assumed that erectus appeared in East Africa in the Middle Pleistocene, evolving from Homo rudolfensis, and already 1.8 million years ago through the Middle East (Homo georgicus) they spread widely across Eurasia up to China (Yuanmou man). The last Pithecanthropus in Indonesia died out 27 thousand years ago, and their dwarf form Homo floresiensis - about 18 thousand years ago.	Erectus actively made stone tools (Acheulean culture), used skins as clothing, lived in caves, used fire and practiced cannibalism	Erectus were relatively widespread throughout the Old World and were divided into a number of local subspecies. The African subspecies is given the name Homo ergaster, although Atlantropus and Rhodesian man are also classified as African erectuses. The name Heidelberg man was assigned to the European subspecies, although there were also “pre-Heidelberg” erectuses. Two subspecies lived in East Asia: the more advanced Sinanthropus from China and the more primitive Pithecanthropus from Indonesia.	With the exception of the dwarf form (Homo floresiensis) from the island of Flores, erecti had average height (1.5-1.8 m), an upright gait and an archaic structure of the skull (thick walls, low frontal bone, protruding supraorbital ridges, sloping chin). The brain volume of non-dwarf forms reached 900-1200 cm3, which is more than that of Homo habilis, but somewhat less than that of Homo sapiens and Homo neanderthalensis.
Homo ergaster (Working man)	fossil species of humans that appeared in Africa 1.8 million years ago as a result of the evolution of Homo habilis or Homo rudolfensis	Perhaps the Working Man already possessed the rudiments of speech. Proto-speech, experts call it lalia (babbling), was very different from modern articulate speech and, most likely, the words were combined into one sentence. Animal food and plant food. They used tools for hunting and labor.	The volume of the brain of a working person is noticeable, and in addition, its sections responsible for abstract thinking have increased, in particular, the size of the frontal lobes has increased. Simultaneously with the increase in the frontal lobes, there was also an increase in the parietal region of the brain, the so-called Broca's area, responsible for speech. Body size increased sharply. The share of animal food in the diet has increased.	Anatomically, African Homo ergaster is similar to Homo erectus. The differences are in the structure of the skull (higher arch and thinner bones, weak occipital protrusion, almost complete absence of the sagittal crest), lighter skeleton and facial structure - closer to modern humans than Homo erectus. The average volume of the skull is 880 cm³, ranging from 750 to 1250 cm³. Height - 130-170 cm. The skull is rounded, the brow ridges are highly developed, the teeth are small, especially in comparison with australopithecines.
Precursor man or man preceding (lat. Homo antecessor)	a fossil species of humans that existed from 1.2 million to 800 thousand years ago. Homo antecessor is considered the most ancient hominid in Europe (only Homo georgicus, discovered in Georgia near the village of Dmanisi, is older - its age reaches 1.7-1.8 million years).	They practiced cannibalism. The technique of making weapons has improved, the guns are acquiring a standard, established shape.	During this period, it turns into a large, active hunter.	The head of H. antecessor had an unusual mixture of Neanderthal and modern human features. They had large brow ridges, a long and low skull, a massive lower jaw without a chin and large teeth, like a Neanderthal. The face, on the contrary, was relatively flat and did not protrude forward, that is, it was similar to the face of a modern person. Height is 1.6-1.8 m, brain volume is about 1000 cm³.
Heidelberg man (lat. Homo heidelbergensis)	fossil species of people, a European variety of Homo erectus (related to the East Asian Sinanthropus and Indonesian Pithecanthropus), living in Europe (from Spain and Britain to Belarus) 800-345 thousand years ago. Apparently, he is a descendant of the European Homo antecessor (Homo cepranensis can be classified as a transitional form) and the immediate predecessor of the Neanderthal.	The culture of the found tools (stone axes and flakes) is characterized as Chelles. The Schöninger spears suggest that the Heidelberg people even hunted elephants with wooden spears, but the meat was eaten raw, since no traces of fire were found at the sites
Sinanthropus (lat. Sinanthropus pekinensis - “Beijing man”	Was discovered in China. Lived about 600-400 thousand years ago, during the glaciation period.	In addition to plant foods, he consumed animal meat. Perhaps he mined and knew how to maintain a fire; he dressed, apparently, in skins. The following were discovered: a thick, about 6-7 m layer of ash, tubular bones and skulls of large animals, tools made of stones, bones, and horns.	Sinanthropus's right hand was more developed than his left.	The volume of his brain reached 850-1220 cm³; The left lobe of the brain, where the motor centers of the right side of the body are located, was slightly larger compared to the right lobe. Height - 1.55-1.6 meters.
Man Idaltu (lat. Homo sapiens idaltu)	one of the oldest representatives of modern humans, found in Ethiopia. The approximate age of the find is 160 thousand years.
Homo sapiens (lat. Homo sapiens)		characterized by a significant degree of development of material culture (including the manufacture and use of tools), the ability to articulate speech and abstract thinking	The main anthropological features of humans that distinguish them from paleoanthropes and archanthropes are a voluminous cerebral skull with a high arch, a vertically rising forehead, the absence of a supraorbital ridge, and a well-developed chin protrusion.	Fossil humans had somewhat more massive skeletons than modern humans.

Ancient times

Life on our planet has existed for more than 3 billion years. During this time, many biological species changed on it, some were exterminated, others evolved or entered a dead-end branch of development and disappeared. But the greatest interest, of course, is our ancestors - hominids. This is the family of the most developed primates and some of them exist to this day. These include orangutans, chimpanzees, gorillas and the subspecies listed. And also man, the pinnacle of primate evolution. So who are they, how are they different from the rest, and why did our ancestors develop into humans? We'll figure this out.

Our ancestors

Hominids are a family that, in addition to existing primates, includes 22 extinct species. In fact, there are several more of them, but these are only those who are included in the pedigree of the modern one. Among them were the most diverse representatives of ancient upright apes, but, as time has shown, Homo Sapiens became the most successful subspecies. And the most famous and more or less well-studied hominids are (caveman), Pithecanthropus, Homo erectus and Homo erectus, respectively.

Difference from other primates

The first and most important thing is, of course, upright posture. There are several plausible theories why our ancestors preferred this method of transportation, but more on them below. And be that as it may, this gave a serious impetus to the evolution and development of humans, because the upper limbs (arms) became free, and they began to be used for various types of activities: making tools, traps, etc. Hominids understood this and actively began to enjoy an advantage over other relatives.

The second difference is brain size and intelligence. But it’s worth mentioning that the dependence between these two facts is not very large, but it still exists. Our smarter ancestors realized the benefits of a collective type of survival and interaction, besides, a large brain requires a lot of calories, and you can’t get enough of ordinary roots, you need meat. But it’s difficult to get it alone, which means it’s wiser to join groups to hunt. As you can see, in evolution nothing passes without a trace.

The hominid family, by the way, until recently included only humans and their immediate ancestors, omitting the living developed primates. But most biologists do not agree with this, and now it includes, as already mentioned, gorillas, chimpanzees and orangutans with subspecies.

Reasons for “humanization”

Disputes on this topic continue to this day, new hypotheses and theories are being born. Most of them, fortunately, are eliminated due to their inconsistency, but there are several well-founded assumptions about why ancient hominids evolved while other mammals remained animals.

For example, paleanthropologist Alexander Markov in the first part of his two-volume book “Human Evolution. Monkeys, bones and genes" makes the following assumptions. Unfortunately, they are too extensive, and we will analyze two - about upright posture and general social development.

According to the first, at a time when our ancestors settled steadily in forests on the borders of steppes and savannas, the need arose to be able to climb trees, hiding from predators and getting food. This was the reason for the development of the upper limbs. And then they started using their hands as a way to carry away more prey. After all, the more often you give gifts to the female, the more favorable she is. But you also have to leave it for yourself, so as not to be hungry...

The next important stage in the phenomenon of hominid evolution is associated with the emergence of families and monogamy. Let's look at a wild monkey society where the harem system reigns. There is a leader at the top, he must constantly defend his dominance, and the rest are always fighting for the females, and there can be no talk of any interaction or friendship.

But with monogamy everything changes! There is no need for eternal rivalry between members of the pack, because even the most “ugly” ones found a mate. And the absence of hostility strengthened ties, because if you unite, hunting, raids on neighboring tribes, and food production in general are much more productive. This means you will become more successful than your neighbors and leave more offspring. And the last, by the way, is a very important factor.

In a harem system, monkeys often kill children in order to mate again with a female. And with monogamy, they grow calmly. And it has been scientifically proven that the more carefree childhood an animal or person has, the smarter it grows. But this should not be confused with infantilism.

Fossil hominids

The remains of our ancestors have been preserved in one state or another depending on the era, and, unfortunately, most often finds are limited to two or three bones, which gradually form a whole skeleton. The process is painstaking, and new technologies for determining age, what our ancestors ate, and other things allow us to look into the past.

Hominids

As soon as science established the opinion that man appeared as a result of evolution and descends from some kind of fossil ape, scientists immediately began talking about the missing link that must be found to prove the correctness of the new theory. Words soon turned to deeds, and success was not long in coming. In 1891, the sought-after link, previously named Pithecanthropus, i.e., ape-man, was found. It, however, turned out to be only the first swallow, which, after a break of a decade and a half, was followed by another one (Heidelberg Homo), and then, after about the same period, another one (Australopithecus), and after them more and more and more . As a result, by the end of the 60s of the last century, such a multitude of fossil species were discovered filling the gap between homo sapiens and the last four-legged progenitor of hominids, which had long disappeared from the face of the Earth, that it was proposed - of course, as a joke - to rename the missing link to the sufficient one. Of course, the author of this sentence only meant that the sought-after link had finally been found, obtained, but since then the word “to get” has acquired an additional semantic connotation in our language (to bother, to bother), and it must be said that it turns out to be The current situation in the hominid family is not so inappropriate.

Each generation of anthropologists strives to make their contribution to the replenishment of the ranks of hominids with new species and genera and, naturally, despite the successes already achieved in this field, the search for the remains of extinct human ancestors does not stop. On the contrary, it is being carried out with ever-increasing intensity and more and more successfully, so that the diagrams depicting our genealogy now have to be redrawn almost every year. As a result, we are now observing, I would say, something like a temporary overabundance of “missing links” being extracted from the bowels of the earth: after all, there are fewer and fewer significant vacancies on our family tree, and the number of applicants for them keeps coming and coming. The competition for filling the “position” of the first hominid is especially great. There is simply no end to the candidates for this place, and on the museum shelf with the corresponding sign, just behold, a real stampede will begin.

But just recently everything was so simple and clear. Until the end of the 70s. last century, it was believed that the only acceptable candidate for a very honorable place at the very base of the hominid family tree was the genus Ramapithecus, known from finds in South Asia and Europe. As such, he still sometimes appears in Russian popular science and even educational literature. However, over the past two decades, as a result of the emergence of new materials and the re-evaluation of old ones, the phylogenetic role of Ramapithecus has undergone a decisive revision. Most experts now believe that this genus of apes, which existed from about 15 to 7 million years ago, is not directly related to the origin of hominids. He stands, rather, at the origins of the line leading to the orangutan, and not to man, or is not directly connected with either one or the other.

The place at the base of the hominid evolutionary line still remains vacant, but competition to occupy it increased sharply at the turn of the second and third millennia. This is due, first of all, to the intensification of field research carried out in those areas where the discovery of skeletal remains of the most ancient human ancestors is most likely. American, English and, especially, French expeditions, now constantly working in East and Central Africa, have made a number of very interesting discoveries over the past few years, which not only deepened our pedigree by about one and a half times, but also significantly expanded the circle of contenders for the title of founder of the family hominid.

Rice. 1.3. Genera of the hominid family on a chronological scale. Their possible genealogical connections are also shown.

Until the mid-90s, the oldest representatives of this family known to science were australopithecus. Ten years ago we would have had to start talking about hominids with them. Since then, however, the situation has changed radically. The numerous genus of Australopithecus in its entirety (and this is at least half a dozen species) managed to move from the base of our family tree closer to its middle part, and the tree itself “extended” by a couple of million years (Fig. 1.3).

In 1994, the remains of a skeleton found at the Aramis site (Middle Awash, Ethiopia) were described in a geological layer that formed about 4.4 million years ago. Analysis of these finds led to the proclamation of a new - at that time the oldest - genus and species of hominids, called Ardipithecus ramidus. True, some anthropologists consider this conclusion controversial, pointing to the presence of a number of features that bring Ramidus closer to chimpanzees (for example, relatively large fangs), but most of the features still speak in favor of its belonging to a hominin. It is especially important that the occipital foramen of the owner of the skull, fragments of which were found in Aramis, is located close to the middle of its base, and this is a feature characteristic of bipeds, that is, upright creatures. The bipedality of Ramidus is also evidenced by new finds made in Middle Avash in the late 90s. They include, among other things, fragments of the lower limbs. The age of these bones, which made it possible to identify a special subspecies of ramidus, called cadabba, exceeds 5 million years.

For six years since its discovery, Ramidus remained the oldest member of the hominid family known to anthropologists. However, many researchers were confident that with its discovery the surprises were far from over. Some directly wrote that sooner or later some other intermediate forms would be discovered that coexisted with Ramidus, or even preceded it. After a number of remarkable discoveries made in 2000–2002, there is no longer any doubt about the validity of this assumption.

First, in 2000, very ancient bones similar to the remains of a hominid were identified at the sites of Kapsonim, Kapcheberek and Aragai in the Tugen Hills area in western Kenya. Teeth, phalanges and fragments of the femur and humerus, discovered here in the layers of the geological formation of Luqueino and dated to about 6 million years ago, allowed the French anthropologists who studied them to identify a new genus and species of probable distant ancestors of humans. It received the name Orrorin tugenensis, derived from the name of the low mountains where the search work was carried out (Tugen) and from the word “orrorin”, meaning “first man” in the language of one of the local tribes. Judging by the structure of the preserved fragment of the femur, Orrorin was an upright creature, i.e., it had one of the main properties necessary for inclusion in the hominids.

A little later, in 2001–2002, at the Toros Menalla fossil site in the Central African Jurab desert, another French expedition found the remains of another hominid, who also lived about 6 million years ago, or even slightly earlier. Among its bones, the well-preserved upper part of the skull (braincase plus facial skeleton), complemented by a fragment of the lower jaw with several teeth, is especially important. This creature was given the name Sahelanthropus tchadensis, derived from the historical name of that part of Africa (Sahel) and the country (Chad) from which the material originates. Sahelanthropus, judging by the original combination of primitive and progressive features on its skull, fully deserves the status of a separate genus. On the one hand, the volume of its brain cavity is surprisingly small: it does not exceed 380 cm 3, which is even slightly less than the average volume of the chimpanzee brain. On the other hand, however, such features as the position of the occipital foramen advanced towards the center of the base of the skull, a relatively flat face and the small size of the canines indicate that their owner belongs to a hominid.

Thanks to the discovery of Ramidus, Orrorin and Sahelanthropus, it became finally clear, firstly, that the hominid line of evolution emerged at least 5 million years ago, and, secondly, that those several species of australopithecus, which until recently were considered our most ancient ancestors, are in fact in fact, they are far from exhausting the entire diversity of forms of early hominids. It can be expected that in the near future the number of known late Miocene and early Pliocene relatives of humans will increase even more. It seems that from the very beginning of the history of the hominid family it was very numerous, but the vast majority of its genera and species existed for a relatively short time. We do not know which of these species became the seed from which our rather branchy family tree grew, and, perhaps, we will never know. Even if the skeletal remains of members of the ancestral group for the entire family of hominids have already been discovered, it is very difficult to accurately identify them and distinguish them from other similar finds - teeth, jaw fragments, small fragments of skull bones or limbs. Perhaps the first hominid was a Sahelanthropus, perhaps an Orrorin, or perhaps, and this is most likely, some creature very similar to them, but not yet found.

In general, when speaking about “species” of long-extinct animals, it should be remembered that we, in fact, do not know whether they were really species in the precise sense of the word. The fact is that the main criterion of a biological species, when it comes to organisms with sexual reproduction, is considered to be reproductive isolation. This means that normally, individuals belonging to different species either cannot interbreed with each other, or are not capable of producing fertile (i.e., not sterile) offspring when crossed. It is clear that it is impossible to verify the fulfillment of the last condition on fossil materials, and therefore we have to put up with the fact that paleontological species identified by skulls, or even just by teeth, may not coincide with biological species. Strictly speaking, it cannot be ruled out that in some cases even the owners of bones classified as different genera (say, Orrorin and Sahelanthropus), with all their external differences, were not actually separated by a barrier of reproductive isolation. Conversely, this barrier could well exist for some individuals whose remains are usually included in one species.

About 4 million years ago, a new character appeared on the evolutionary arena - Australopithecus. His remains were first discovered back in 1924. This happened in South Africa, which is reflected in the name given to the find that intrigued the entire scientific world. It is translated from ancient Greek as “southern monkey.” Although Australopithecus, as already mentioned, can no longer claim the status of the oldest hominids, they still remain the main “suppliers” of information about the early stages of the evolutionary history of our family. In sediments aged from 4 to 2 million years, their bones are quite numerous, and every year brings new finds. Judging by the distribution of these finds in time and space, Australopithecines appeared and lived initially in the eastern part of Africa, and only at the very end of the Pliocene, about 3 million years ago, they penetrated the southern tip of this continent, as well as its central regions. Outside of Africa, reliable finds of Australopithecus bones are still unknown.

Rice. 1.4. Skulls of Australopithecus gracile (top) and massive, or paranthropus (bottom).

The systematics and evolutionary history of Australopithecines are among the most actively discussed topics among anthropologists. Within this group of hominids, up to eight species are now distinguished, and it is often divided into two more genera or subgenera: Australopithecus proper and Paranthropus. One of these subgenera includes the so-called “gracile” forms (these are Australopithecus afarensis, Africanus and Garhi), and the other “massive” (Australopithecus or Paranthropus Bois, Ethiopian, etc.), and the difference between the two lies mainly , in the size of the jaws and teeth (Fig. 1.4). The term "australopithecines" is often used as a common name for australopithecines and paranthropes.

The anatomical structure of Australopithecus leaves no doubt that they moved on two legs. This is evidenced by such features as a short and wide pelvis, an arched foot, a non-opposed big toe, an S-shaped curvature of the vertebral column, and the position of the foramen magnum in the center (and not at the back, as in monkeys) of the base of the skull. The bipedality of Australopithecines is also indicated by the analysis of their traces preserved in hardened volcanic ash at the Latoli site in Tanzania (the age of the traces is from 3.2 to 3.6 million years). At the same time, along with the listed features, all types of australopithecines retained in the structure of the skeleton and especially the limbs some features associated with an arboreal lifestyle, and it is likely that many of them actually spent a considerable part of their time in the trees.

In terms of the absolute volume of the brain cavity (400–500 cm3), australopithecines generally differ little from chimpanzees, and are even somewhat inferior to gorillas. This is explained by the relatively small body size of early hominids, whose weight, according to available reconstructions, in most cases ranged from 30 to 50 kg. As for the relative size of the brain, that is, its weight or size, taken in relation to the weight or size of the body, then in this indicator, Australopithecus, probably, although not by much, was still superior to all apes, both extinct and modern .

The oldest remains of australopithecines were found in 1994–1997. at the Kanapoi and Alia Bay sites in Kenya. These materials, dating from 4.2 to 3.9 million years ago, served to identify the species Australopithecus anamensis. Its name comes from the word “anam”, meaning “lake” in the local language. This name was chosen because Kanapoi, where the very first discovery was made, is located on the shores of Lake Turkana. Like all australopithecus, Anamensis undoubtedly moved on the ground without the help of its upper limbs. Its diet, in contrast to the diet of great apes, included mainly coarse, solid plant food, as evidenced by the increased thickness of the enamel on the molars compared to Ramidus and modern chimpanzees. The intermediate chronological position of Anamensis and the known anatomical characteristics of this species allow us to consider it as a possible link between Ardipithecus, on the one hand, and later forms of Australopithecus, on the other.

Recent (1998–1999) finds at the Lomekwi site in Kenya (west coast of Lake Turkana), which included a fairly well-preserved skull aged 3.5 million years, served as the basis for the identification of another genus of hominids that coexisted with australopithecines. This genus, called Kenyanthropus, differed from all its other contemporaries, first of all, in the unusually low degree of protrusion of the lower part of the facial skeleton, approaching in this respect with later hominids.

One of Kenyanthropus's contemporaries was Australopithecus afarensis, known from finds from the Tanzanian site of Latoli, the Ethiopian sites of Fejej, Bilohdeli, Maka and Hadar, and the Kenyan sites of Koobi Fora and Lomekwi. Emerging approximately 3.9 million years ago, this species remained, as best as can be judged from currently available data, the most numerous and widespread form of hominids for the next million years. Of course, it is quite possible and even probable that in Africa in the period from 3 to 4 million years ago, in addition to Kenyanthropus and Australopithecus afarensis, some other representatives of our family lived, but their bones have not yet been found or have not been identified.

The question of which of the groups of early hominids served as the substrate for further human evolution, that is, gave rise to the genus Homo, and whether the remains of representatives of such a group are even present in the paleontological material obtained to date is very complex and far from being resolved. Until recently, the most promising - although not flawless - candidate for this role was considered Australopithecus africanus, or Africanus, who lived from 3 to 2.4 million years ago and is known mainly from finds in South Africa (localities Taung, Sterkfontein, Makapansgat ), but recently its position has been greatly shaken. Comparison of numerous bones of the upper and lower limbs of Africanus, discovered during ongoing work at Sterkfontein, revealed that the species is much closer in size to apes than to hominids. Simply put, his arms were most likely significantly longer than his legs. Even Australopithecus anamensis and afarensis, who lived a million years earlier, look more “advanced” in the proportions of their limbs. This unexpected discovery completely confuses an already complicated situation, since in terms of the structure of the teeth and skull, Africanus, on the contrary, is much closer to Homo than the Afar man, not to mention the Anamensis.

The skull of Australopithecus africanus, which lived approximately 2.6–2.8 million years ago, recently found in Sterkfontein, has a volume of the endocranium (as anthropologists call the brain cavity) of about 515 cm 3, which is a record for an australopithecine and comparable to the minimum values recorded for representatives of the genus Homo. True, until recently it was believed that some of the later Paranthropus had even larger brains, but new reconstructions have shown that this is not so. In terms of the volume of the endocranium, Africanus is at least not inferior to Paranthropus, and in terms of the structural features of the brain it is closer to hominids of the genus Homo than all other currently known Australopithecine species.

In November 1997, at one of the paleontological sites in the Middle Awash region (Ethiopia), a hominid skull about 2.5 million years old was found, which served as the basis for the identification of a species called Australopithecus garhi (the word “garhi” in the Afar language means “surprise” "). The frontal and parietal bones, as well as the upper jaw with teeth, have been preserved. According to the researchers who described the new species, it may well be considered a possible ancestor of the genus Homo. However, if field research carried out by paleoanthropologists in Africa maintains its current scope, then we can expect that the number of hominid forms claiming this role will increase even more.

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