Australopithecus afarensis

Australopithecus afarensis is an extinct species of australopithecine which lived from about 3.9–2.9 million years ago (mya) in the Pliocene of East Africa. The first fossils were discovered in the 1930s, but major fossil finds would not take place until the 1970s. From 1972 to 1977, the International Afar Research Expedition—led by anthropologists Maurice Taieb, Donald Johanson and Yves Coppens—unearthed several hundreds of hominin specimens in Hadar, Afar Region, Ethiopia, the most significant being the exceedingly well-preserved skeleton AL 288-1 ("Lucy") and the site AL 333. Beginning in 1974, Mary Leakey led an expedition into Laetoli, Tanzania, and notably recovered fossil trackways. In 1978, the species was first described, but this was followed by arguments for splitting the wealth of specimens into different species given the wide range of variation which had been attributed to sexual dimorphism. A. afarensis probably descended from A. anamensis and is hypothesised to have given rise to Homo, though the latter is debated.

Australopithecus afarensis

120 · CC BY 2.5 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
AustralopithecusPBDB
Diet
omnivorePBDB, for Hominidae
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Hominidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 1.7 million years on record.

The record covers at least 5.333 Mya to 3.6 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 7.246 Mya to 2.58 Mya.

Miocene — about 1 of 41 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 40 of 41 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 0 of 41 occurrences7.4–7.2 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences7.2–7.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.0–6.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.8–6.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.6–6.4 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.4–6.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.2–6.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.0–5.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.9–5.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.7–5.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.5–5.3 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences5.3–5.1 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences5.1–4.9 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences4.9–4.7 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences4.7–4.5 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences4.5–4.3 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences4.3–4.2 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences4.2–4.0 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences4.0–3.8 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences3.8–3.6 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences3.6–3.4 Mya — about 6 occurrences3.4–3.2 Mya — about 6 occurrences3.2–3.0 Mya — about 6 occurrences3.0–2.8 Mya — about 6 occurrences2.8–2.6 Mya — about 6 occurrences2.6–2.5 Mya — about 2 occurrences5.333 Mya3.6 Mya7.7 Mya2.1 Mya

41 occurrences of Australopithecus afarensis on record, most of them in the Pliocene. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

41 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

8 formations

Hadar — 11.17°N, 40.58°EHadar — 11.12°N, 40.59°EHadar — 11.07°N, 40.77°EHadar — 11.00°N, 40.50°EVogel River Series — 3.01°S, 35.20°EVogel River Series — 3.13°S, 35.13°EFejej — 5.00°N, 37.00°ELukeino — 0.50°N, 35.67°EChemeron — 0.67°N, 35.83°EKoobi Fora — 3.59°N, 36.24°ENachukui — 2.90°N, 36.05°ERift Valley — 1.39°S, 36.72°E

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The named rock units Australopithecus afarensis has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 2 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Australopithecus afarensis and its relatives

Pliocene

Where Australopithecus afarensis and its relatives were recorded in the Pliocene.

Found in the same rock

221 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 41 sites for Australopithecus afarensis, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

17 references

Each of the 41 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 5 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content3

Picture of Australopithecus afarensis

Credit
120
Licence
CC BY 2.5
Commercial use
the licence allows it

Photogrammetry

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Australopithecus afarensis · up:laetoli:TP2

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itAustralopithecus through timeFormations of the PlioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Johanson et al. 1978