Kenyanthropus platyops
Kenyanthropus platyops is an extinct hominid species discovered in Lake Turkana, Kenya in 1999. It was by Justus Erus, who was part of Meave Leakey's team.[1]
| Kenyanthropus platyops Temporal range: Pliocene
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| Genus: | Kenyanthropus
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| †Kenyanthropus platyops Leakey et al., 2001
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The fossil is 3.5 to 3.2 million years old. It has a broad flat face with a toe bone that suggests it probably walked upright. Teeth are intermediate between typical human and typical ape forms.
Leakey proposed that the fossil represents an entirely new hominine genus.[2] Others classify it as a separate species of Australopithecus, Australopithecus platyops, and still others interpret it as an individual of Australopithecus afarensis.
If some palaeoanthropologists are correct, Kenyanthropus may not even represent a valid taxon. The specimen is so distorted by matrix-filled cracks that meaningful morphological characteristics are next to impossible to assess with confidence.
Kenyanthropus Platyops Media
- Kenyanthropus-Lomekwi.jpg
Location of Lomekwi, on the western shore of Lake Turkana, Kenya
- KNM ER 1470 (H. rudolfensis).png
Reconstruction of H. rudolfensis KNM-ER 1470, which resembles Kenyanthropus KNM-WT 40000
- Australopithecus afarensis reconstruction.JPG
Kenyanthropus was contemporary with A. afarensis ("Lucy" above)
References
- ↑ Kenyanthropus platyops
- ↑ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Identifiers at line 630: attempt to index field 'known_free_doi_registrants_t' (a nil value).
Other websites
Media related to Kenyanthropus platyops at Wikimedia Commons