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Re: REPOST: A. ramidus as test case for AAT
Mark Fagan (71640.2463@CompuServe.COM)
24 Jul 1995 06:15:01 GMT
ramidus is described in Tim. D. White, Gen Suwa & Berhane Asfaw,
"Australopithecus Ramidus, a new species of early hominid from
Aramis, Ethiopia", NATURE 371:306-312 (9/22/94) and then attributed
to Ardipithecus (Gen. nov.) ramidus in a letter in NATURE 375:88
(5/4/95).
Besides a partial basicranium, there are most of the humerus,
radius and ulna. The morphology appears in keeping with the other
hominids (a forward placed foramen magnum compared to apes, for
example), but is somewhat less advanced than A. afarensis. There
wasn't enough evidence to say that they were bipedal or not (which
is probably why they left the question of genus open and later
created a new one).
In '94, the authors "anticipated recovery at Aramis of additional
postcranial remains, particularly those of the lower limb and hip"
and suggested that the family and genus of ramidus might have to be
revised when this evidence was in. I haven't yet heard of
publication of any such finds, but the new genus suggests that they
may have them. They called ramidus "the most apelike hominid
ancestor known", but since we don't yet know what apes really
looked like 5-6 million years ago, I don't know what this suggests
viz a viz the AAT.
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