Australopithecus deyiremeda
Australopithecus deyiremeda is an extinct hominin which lived about 3.4 million years ago in northern Ethiopia.[1][2][3]
| Australopithecus deyiremeda | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification 
| |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Order: | Primates |
| Family: | Hominidae |
| Genus: | Australopithecus |
| Species: | A. deyiremeda
|
| Binomial name | |
| Australopithecus deyiremeda Haile-Selassie et al., 2015
| |
A. deyiremeda was perhaps one of four different species of early humans that were all alive at the same time. It lived around the same time and place as several previously discovered specimens of Australopithecus afarensis. They include the well-known Lucy.
Analysis of fossil teeth suggest that A. deyiremeda had a different diet from A. afarensis.[4] Some scientists believe that A. deyiremeda fossils really belonged to A. afarensis individuals, and are not a unique species at all. Others disagree.[5]
Name
The word Australopithecus means "southern ape" in Latin. The word deyiremeda means "close relative" in the Afar language of Ethiopia.[5]
Discovery site
The discovery was in the Afar Region of Ethiopia about 325 miles (523 km) (520 kilometers) northeast of the capital Addis Ababa and 22 miles (35 km) north of Hadar, Ethiopia (“Lucy’s” site).[6]
Within the study area where the fossils were found, paleoanthropologists have found more than 120 early hominin fossil specimens, all around 3.4 to 3.8 million years old.[7][8]
Identification
Ethiopian paleoanthropologist Yohannes Haile-Selassie and his team first proposed A. deyiremeda as a species in 2015.[5] He told the BBC that in order to identify A. deyiremeda as a species:
We had to look at the detailed anatomy and morphology of the teeth and the upper and lower jaws, and we found major differences. This new species has very robust jaws. In addition, we see this new species had smaller teeth. The canine [tooth] is really small – smaller than all known hominins we have found in the past.[9]
Description
A. deyiremeda was bipedal. However, it probably also spent time in the trees, based on its foot anatomy.[10]
Analysis of fossil teeth suggests that this species had a plant-based diet similar to Ardipithecus ramidus and Australopithecus anamensis.[10]
Australopithecus Deyiremeda Media
Reconstruction of BRT-VP-2/73
Related pages
References
- ↑ Big-toothed prehistoric human lived alongside 'Lucy'. DNews.
- ↑ Haile-Selassie Y. et al 2015. New species from Ethiopia further expands Middle Pliocene hominin diversity. Nature 521 (7553): 483. [1]
- ↑ Spoor F. 2015. Palaeoanthropology: the middle Pliocene gets crowded. Nature 521 (7553): 432. doi:10.1038/521432a. [2]
- ↑ Ethiopian fossils represent new member of human family tree. Reuters (27 May 2015). Retrieved 30 August 2017.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Haile-Selassie, Yohannes; Gibert, Luis; Melillo, Stephanie M.; Ryan, Timothy M.; Alene, Mulugeta; Deino, Alan; Levin, Naomi E.; Scott, Gary; Saylor, Beverly Z. (2015). "New species from Ethiopia further expands Middle Pliocene hominin diversity" (PDF). Nature. 521 (7553): 483–488. Bibcode:2015Natur.521..483H. doi:10.1038/nature14448. PMID 26017448. S2CID 4455029.
- ↑ Australopithecus deyiremeda | Cleveland Museum of Natural History. Retrieved 2015-05-28.
- ↑ Haile-Selassie, Yohannes. Middle Pliocene hominin mandibular fourth premolars from Woranso-Mille (Central Afar, Ethiopia). Journal of Human Evolution 78 (2015). p. 44–59. doi:10.1016/j.jhevol.2014.08.005.
- ↑ Australopithecus diyaremeda - Curator discovers new human ancestor speciesCleveland Museum of Natural History. Retrieved 2015-05-28.
- ↑ "'New species' of ancient human found" (in en-GB). BBC News. 2015-05-28. https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-32906836. Retrieved 2025-12-21.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Haile-Selassie, Yohannes. New finds shed light on diet and locomotion in Australopithecus deyiremeda (in en). Nature 648 (8094) (December 2025). p. 640–648. doi:10.1038/s41586-025-09714-4.