Afarensis

Afarensis

Collections
Museum of Anthropology
at Rowan University
Click any image to enlarge

Object Number:1000.025.00

Current Location:

Culture Provenience: 1974 Eastern Africa (Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania)

Culture Area: Eastern Africa 

Max Cranial Length: 14cm

Basion-Bregma Height: 10.6cm

Average Height: Males 4’11”, Females 3’5”

Average Weight: Males 92lbs, Females 64lbs

Period of Time: between 3.9 and 2.9 million years ago.

Section: Human Evolution

 

About Afarensis

Afarensis most likely lived in small social groups that occupied a range of environments including savannah, sparse woodlands and dense forests. Fossil bones bearing cut marks indicate this species most likely used simple tools made of sticks and other plant materials and non-modified stones. Their diet included mostly fruits and leaves, but they may have included significant amounts of meat. A. afarensis featured an apelike face was with a sloping forehead, prominent brow ridges above the eyes, flat nose, strongly projected lower jaw and a braincase approximately 1/3 the size of the modern human brain. Their long arms featured curved fingers adapted for climbing trees. This species is the oldest documented bipedal species adapted to live on land and in the trees and their ape and human characteristics aided in their survival as climates and environments changed.