A Brief History of Australopithecines Quiz

Answer: Australopithecus africanus

Dart discovered a skull which he called Australopithecus africanus, which means "southern ape-man from Africa". He found this skull in a crate of fossil-bearing rock from a lime quarry in Taung, in what was then Bechuanaland, and is now Botswana. The skull was very small, and Dart called it the Taung Child.
Dart's discovery was not taken seriously for 23 years. Scientists believed it was the skull of an ape. Finally, in 1947, similar fossils were found in Sterkfontein, South Africa, and brought credence to Dart's find; and in 1950, eminent scientist Wilfrid Le Gros Clark cleared Dart's name forever in a scientific journal.
The Taung Baby was probably about six years old when it died.

Answer: Australopithecus robustus has a more massive jaw and larger molars than Australopithecus africanus; it also has a prominent bony ridge on the top of the skull.

Australopithecus has a more massive jaw and larger molars than Australopithecus africanus; it also has a prominent bony ridge on the top of the skull. The bony ridge on the top of the skull runs from front to back and is properly called a sagittal crest.

Answer: At Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania, by Mary Leakey

Mary Leakey found an australopithecine skull in 1959 at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania. The skull's nickname is "Zinj", derived from its full name, for as you will see, because the skull was so large, Louis Leakey decided to dispense with the old names of A. africanus and A. robustus, and to give it a whole new name entirely.

He called it Zinjanthropus boisei. 'Zinj' is from an Arabic word meaning 'East Africa", and 'Boisei' is in honour of Charles Boise, an early supporter of Leakey's work. Leakey became famous overnight for his discovery, although it had been his wife, Mary, who not only had been the one to find Zinj while Louis was laid up with malaria, but she had also been the one who had spent months fitting together its several hundred pieces into a skull. Mary had the additional burden of putting up with Louis' constant affairs. Eventually, "Zinj" was reclassified as Australopithecus boisei. Richard Leakey is the middle son of Louis & Mary Leakey.

He is a successful anthropologist in his own right, as are his wife Meave, and their daughter, Louise. Richard headed the Kenya Wildlife Service for several years, vigorously fighting against elephant poaching, until, in 1993, his self-piloted propeller plane crashed, causing the loss of both of his legs. Given his dangerous political arena, sabotage has always been suspected, never proven.

Answer: A nearly-complete skeleton of a new australopithecine species

Donald Johanson discovered a nearly-complete skeleton of a new australopithecine species. Based on its location in the Afar valley, he called it Australopithecus afarensis. At the time, and until 20 years later, it was the oldest human ancestor; current dating methods tell us that the fossil skeleton is 3.2 million years old.

The Afar valley is in southern Ethiopia near the banks of the Awash River.

Answer: After a Beatles song

The night the first fossils were found, the field workers sat around the campfire and sang their favourite songs; "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" by the Beatles was one of their favourites, and a spontaneous decision was made to give this name to the skeleton.
In 1974, Donald Johanson was married to a woman named Sally, and it was he himself who found the first fossils. As far as I know, there were no women on the 1974 field team.

Answer: Australopithecus africanus

Paranthropus aethiopicus not only lived alongside Australopithecus africanus, but it is believed to have been a short-lived side-shoot of it. It was more heavily built than A. africanus, constructed more along the lines of A. robustus, and the robust species all died out. The smaller, more gracile, slightly built species lived on, and were the descendants of man, Homo sapiens.

Answer: Australopithecus garhi

Circumstantial evidence points to Australopithecus garhi being the first stone tool user. Both stone tools and antelope bones bearing the cut marks of a stone tools were found with A. garhi fossils at a site in Gona, Ethiopia. The site is 2.5 million years old. "Garhi", by the way, is Arabic for "surprise". Prior to this site's surprising discoveries, it was conjectured that Homo erectus was the first stone tool user, in what was called the Oldowan tool industry, from 1.9-1.5 million years ago. [Oldowan refers to Olduvai Gorge, in Tanzania, where many Homo erectus fossils and stone tools have been found.]

Answer: Chad

The sample selection of a fossil mandible [jaw] with seven teeth was found in western Chad, in the bed of the Bahr el Ghazal River [hence the name]. If you have an atlas or wish to look it up online, the river is quite long, and lies between the towns of Mao and Moussoro in western Chad.
The team that found the mandible are arguing for a new name based mainly on geographical location - the fossil was found 2,500 km. west of the nearest A. afarensis fossil. In addition, the mandible is shaped differently the A. afarensis, and the number of roots in its premolars differ from those of A. afarensis.
As only this one mandible has been found, other fossils will need to be found to settle this debate.

Answer: Turkana

The western shore of Lake Turkana has been the site of many fabulous fossil finds over the years. A particular site near the lake where the Leakey family works, called Koobi Fora, has been particularly rich in fossils. I recommend http://www.kfrp.com/fossils_of_koobi_fora.htm as a great place to have a look around if you are interested in seeing some of the finds that have been made near Lake Turkana's shore. Lake Turkana is in northern Kenya, and creeps just a bit over the Ethiopian border. The oldest bipedal australopithecine is A. anamensis; anam is the Turkana people's word for lake. Meave Leakey and the other scientists working with her base their claim of upright walking on the fossil tibia, which is one of the leg bones.

These fossils are between 3.9 and 4.2 million years old.

Answer: A juvenile Australopithecus afarenis skeleton

In 2000, the 3.2 million year old fossilized remains of a juvenile Australopithecus afarensis were found in Ethiopia's Dikika region. The fossils were not unearthed until 2005, as it took five painstaking years with steady hands and careful tools to remove the fossils without damaging them.

A CAT scan done on the little girl's jaw shows unerupted teeth, which leads scientists to believe that she was about three years old. The gender of the skeleton can be determined by the shape of the pelvic bone.