a flower lacking one or more of the four parts found in a complete flower: sepals, petals, stamens, and pistils
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| Found: 2001, in Toros-Manalla site 266, Chad Old: 7 to 6 million years info.: The fossil specimen that was found by Brunet’s team was a badly crushed and distorted cranium.  2) Ardipithecus kadaba Found:1997 Old: 5.7 to 5.2 million years Info.: Ardipithecus kadabba is an early hominin species recovered from sediments in the Middle Awash Valley of Ethiopia dated to between 5.2 and 5.8 million years ago. These fossils are of particular importance because fragments from both the skull and body have been found and are argued to demonstrate some of the earliest signs of bipedalism and hominin dental morphology. As one of the oldest species of human ancestors, Ar. kadabba helps to push back the origin of hominins into the late Miocene Epoch (roughly 11.6 to 5.3 million years ago).  3) Australopithecus afarensis Found: November 1974, Hadar, Ethiopia and other sites in Ethiopoia, Kenya, Tanzania Old: 3.9 tp 3.9 million years Info. : The first specimens attributed to Australopithecus afarensis were discovered in the 1970’s by Donald Johanson working in the Afar Triangle of Ethiopia at the site of Hadar. A succession of spectacular discoveries, including a knee joint, the famous Lucy skeleton, and the remains of a family group, ensured that Au, afarensis would come to occupy a prominent place on the hominin family tree. In addition to the impressive finds located by Johanson and his international team of scientists, further amazing discoveries were uncovered by Mary Leakey and her team, four years later and far to the south of Ethiopia, at the site of Laetoli, on the edge of the Serengeti Plains in Tanzania. Leakey’s team discovered trace fossils of footprints of hundreds of animals, preserved in an ash layer that was securely dated to 3.6 ma. Amongst the animal footprints were some 70 footprints of hominins, captured as they walked bipedally across a wet, muddy plain. | |
 4) Australopithecus africanus Found: October 1924, Taung also Sterkfontein and Makapansgat, South Africa Old: 3.0 to 2.0 million years old Info.: The first member of its genus to be discovered, Australopithecus africanus is the oldest species of hominin to be found in southern Africa. Cave sites where it is found have been dated approximately to 3-2.0 ma based mostly on biochronological methods (dating methods utilizing the relative chronologies of non-hominin animal fossils). Its morphology is similar to Australopithecus afarensis, but it has important differences in the skull and teeth. The fact that Au. africanus shares some morphological features with Au. afarensis, others with members of the Paranthropus genus, and others with early Homo species makes it a difficult species to place in the hominin lineage. Thus, understanding Au. africanus is central to understanding early hominin phylogeny. |
