{"id":327,"date":"2020-10-27T12:08:59","date_gmt":"2020-10-27T12:08:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.modernhumanorigins.com\/?page_id=327"},"modified":"2020-10-30T12:41:15","modified_gmt":"2020-10-30T12:41:15","slug":"aethiopicus-html","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.modernhumanorigins.com\/aethiopicus.html","title":{"rendered":"Australopithecus Paranthropus Aethiopicus"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Introduction<\/h2>\n

The discovery of KNM-WT 17000 (the “Black Skull”) occurred in 1986 and is an important part of the australopithecine puzzle. Very little is known about Australopithecus aethiopicus, since so few specimens have been attributed to the species, but the features that are known provide important insights into the possible evolutionary history between the “robust” and “gracile” australopithecines. In general, aethiopicus shows a mixture of both primitive and derived features, and dates to a time that makes it important in its placement into the hominid phylogenetic tree.<\/p>\n

The first specimen attributed to this species group is an edentulous mandible (Omo 18) found in southern Ethiopia, west of the Omo River, in 1967. The specimen was discovered by a French expedition led by Camille Arambourg and Yves Coppens. This 2.5 million-year-old mandible was placed into a new species by its discoverers, who named the species Paraustralopithecus aethiopicus. They believed that the specimen deserved a new species designation because its V-shaped jaw (among other features) distinguished it from the robust australopithecus forms known in the area. Generally, the discovery and designation were ignored by the majority of paleoanthropologists.<\/p>\n

Not until the Black Skull discovery was there much interest in the specimen, but once KNM-WT 17000 was discovered in, interest was renewed in the Omo mandible. The genus name was dropped in favour of the more traditional Australopithecus designation, but Arambourg and Coppens’ species designation of aethiopicus was taken as the species name. This species designation is still debated by many who see the remains of early robustus or an early precursor and those who see aethiopicus as proof that africanus is not the forerunner of all the “robusts”.<\/p>\n

Diagnostic Features<\/h2>\n

The better-known aethiopicus specimen is KNM-WT 17000, a nearly complete skull sans the mandible. The specimen is known as the “Black Skull” because mineral uptake during fossilization gave the specimen a blue-black color. The specimen was discovered in a 2.5 myr deposit west of Lake Turkana, and threw a wrench in many evolutionary schemes accepted by many researchers. The specimen is similar to a male A. afarensis, but with a very small cranial capacity (410 cc), and an even more powerful nuchal musculature and very developed masticatory apparatus.<\/p>\n

The well-developed masticatory features are seen by:<\/h2>\n