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Re: Australopithecus, Homo erectus, single species hypothesis
JP Bailhe (71202.2712@CompuServe.COM)
27 Feb 1995 01:56:21 GMT
Robet Scott writes here that Ramapithecus is a "junior synonym of
Sivapithecus."
I'd be very interested to have an reference on that. From what
I've seen, Rama is decidedly different from Siva.
Re: A afarensis accepted as one species- Yes indeed, but what are
we to make of 1) Lucy originally classed as a late ramapithecine
by Johanson himself; 2) at least one of the specimens bore a
nuchal crest, suggesting a sagittal crest, and other features
typical of robustus.
R. Leakey continues, so far as I know, to regard Lucy as a late
ramapithecine and, in-fighting aside, it would seem we should
give his opinion at least some consideration. Mary Leakey, of
course, we annoyed with Johanson's grouping the three afarensis
types in on species because: one of the mandibles was wquite
large, very much like Meganthropus, and the fossils from Laetoli
were argued to be Homo by M. Leakey. The invention of the species
afarensis swallowed both Megahtropus and the Laetoli specimes. As
a matter of fact, I think it was LH-4 that Johanson used as the
mandible type specimen for afarensis.
I've no argument afarensis is accepted, but we should bare in
mind Johanson's own struggle grouping 3 types in one species.
--
JP Bailhe 71202.2712@compuserve.com
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