Abstract
Hominoid fossils from Hadar, in Ethiopia and Laetoli, in Tanzania, and dated from the late Pliocene, were described as a new species of hominid, “Australopithecus afarensis,”Johanson, White andCoppens, 1978. A comparative morphological analysis of the lectotype and several paralectotypes reveal that that two taxa were synthesized and that “Australopithecus afarensis” represents a hominid and a pongid. The hominid is relatively unspecialized, and the pongid is remarkably similar toDryopithecus (Sivapithecus) sivalensis (Lydekker), 1879. The pongid is the first anthropoid ape recorded from the late Pliocene in Africa.
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Ferguson, W.W. An alternative interpretation ofAustralopithecus afarensis fossil material. Primates 24, 397–409 (1983). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02381984
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02381984