Scientists have found that Australopithecus Lucy died from a fall from a tree. "The missing link of evolution" turned out to be a fake

Australopithecus afarensis(lat. Australopithecus afarensis , rarely Praeanthropus afarensis) is a species of extinct upright (“bipedal” or bipedal) hominids that lived about 2.9-3.9 million years ago (in the Pliocene). Belongs to the group of “gracile” australopithecines because had a slender build. This is one of the most famous and well-studied australopithecines, which is facilitated by a large number of discovered remains.

History of the study

The first fossils (AL 129-1, AL - Afar locality) belonging to this species were discovered by the American anthropologist Donald Johanson (as part of a team that also included Maurice Taieb, Yves Coppens and Tim White) in Hadar (Middle Awash, Afar Lowland, Ethiopia) in November 1973. They consisted of parts of the tibia and femur that form the knee joint.

On November 24 (according to other sources, November 30), 1974, 2.5 km from the place of the first discovery of this species, the most famous and complete remains were found - a partially (about 40%) preserved skeleton of a female individual (dated to about 3.2 million years back) called " Lucy"(AL 288-1). The skeleton was found by Tom Gray and D. Johanson (as part of the same group). Scientists named the skeleton after the Beatles song “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.” Lucy's height was approximately 107 cm and her weight was about 29 kg. Approximate age: 25 years.

A year later, Johanson and his team made another discovery: Michael Busch found a site (AL 333) that contained more than 200 fragments belonging to at least 13 individuals - both adults and juveniles. The uniqueness of the find is that all individuals died at the same time, as evidenced by the location of the remains. This may have happened as a result of a flood. The unofficial name for this find is “The First Family.”

In 1978, a scientific description of the species was published. Moreover, despite the fact that the specimen LH 4 ​​found in 1974 from Laetoli (Tanzania) was chosen as the type specimen (holotype), the species was named Australopithecus afarensis, because most of its known finds come from the Afar Plain in Ethiopia.

In 1992, the skull of a male specimen (AL 444-2) was discovered in Hadar. At that time, it was the only almost complete skull of this species. Until this time, the rarity of relatively complete skulls of Australopithecus afarensis seriously hampered analysis of its evolutionary significance.

In 2000, in Dikika (Ethiopia), a few kilometers from where Lucy was found, the skeleton of a female A. afarensis baby, approximately 3 years old, was found. It consists of an almost complete skull, torso and most parts of the limbs. The find was given the name “Selam”, which means “peace” in the Ethiopian language. Unofficially, she is sometimes also called “Child of Lucy” or “Daughter of Lucy” (this is funny, because Selam lived about 100-120 thousand years before Lucy).

In 2005, in Corsi Dora (north of Hadar), researchers found another skeleton (dated to about 3.58-3.6 million years ago). Officially designated KSD-VP-1/1, it was given the unofficial name "Kadanuumuu" (in Afar " Big man"). He is notable for the fact that his height is unusually large for an australopithecus, which is what his second name is associated with. The skeleton is less well preserved than Lucy's, however, based on the results of the study of the surviving fragments, the estimated height range is 1.52-1.68 m.

Morphology and interpretations

The height of most adult individuals was estimated to be 100-140 cm, weight - from 30 to 55 kg. The reason for such a wide range is pronounced sexual dimorphism, males were much larger than females.

Compared to extinct and living apes, A. afarensis has smaller canines and molars (though larger than those of modern humans). It also has a prognathic face (with protruding jaws) and a relatively small brain volume. It was initially thought to fall within the range of ~350-485 cm 3 , but the discovery of the skull of AL 444-2 allowed the upper limit of this range to be pushed back to approximately 550-600 cm 3 .

The image of an upright hominid with a small brain and primitive facial features was in some way a revelation for the paleontological world of that time, because. It was previously believed that the increase in brain volume was the first major morphological change in hominids.

Before the discovery of Australopithecus afarensis in the 1970s. it was widely believed that an increase in brain volume preceded the transition to upright walking. This was mainly due to the fact that the most ancient upright walking hominids known at that time had relatively big brain(for example, Homo Rudolfis, discovered just a few years before Lucy, had a brain volume of about 800 cm 3).

There is considerable debate as to whether Australopithecus afarensis was almost exclusively upright, or whether it also led a partially arboreal lifestyle. The anatomy of his arms and shoulder joints largely confirms the second assumption. The bending of the finger bones, like those of modern monkeys, indicates their ability to effectively cling to branches. On the other hand, the absence of an opposable big toe on the feet and the presence of an arch of the foot deprives it of the ability to cling to branches with its feet and makes it unsuitable for climbing trees.

The number of skeletal features in A. afarensis that indicate upright walking is so significant that many researchers believe that upright walking evolved long before its origins. Among these features is the structure of the pelvis and feet. Modern apes have flat and flexible feet with opposable thumb, which is useful for climbing trees, but ineffective for walking on two legs. Until recently, the presence of an arch in the Australopithecus foot was also disputed due to the lack of direct evidence - bones. However, in 2011, new bones of A. afarensis were discovered at site AL 333, including a metatarsal bone of the foot, which clearly demonstrate the presence of an arch. It was probably this species that left traces in Laetoli, dating back to 3.6-3.8 million years ago - the first direct evidence of bipedalism.

Interestingly, in some respects, the anatomy of Australopithecus afarensis is even better suited for upright walking than that of modern humans. The pelvic bones are located in such a way that some muscles work in mechanically more favorable conditions, but this leads to a narrowing of the birth canal. And if for Australopithecus this was not critical due to the small volume of the baby’s skull, then for humans this became a serious problem (even despite the fact that children are already born biologically very immature). Perhaps it was the growth of brain volume and intelligence, which became the main evolutionary advantage of people, that forced nature to somewhat sacrifice the mechanical perfection of the skeleton.

It is believed that A. afarensis is closer to the genus Homo (to which modern H. sapiens belongs) than any other known primate of that time (as a direct ancestor or a closely related species to an unknown ancestor).

Using Tools

Previously, scientists believed that the use of stone tools by human ancestors began about 2.5-2.6 million years ago. However, in August 2010, a study was published in the journal Nature stating that animal bones were found in Dikika (Ethiopia) with traces of tool processing (scratches - evidence of scraping meat from bones, and impact marks - to access the bone brain). Argon isotope dating (40 Ar and 39 Ar) gives an age between 3.24 and 3.42 million years. And stratigraphic and geological evidence suggests an age of at least 3.39 million years. Thus, for the first time, tools could have been used by human ancestors (and, more specifically, Australopithecus afarensis) 800 thousand years before Homo habilis. On the other hand, opponents argue that these marks could have been randomly caused by surrounding abrasive materials, and it is too early to draw conclusions about the use of tools by Australopithecus.

    Photo: David L. Brill


  • Members of an international scientific team searching for fossils carefully examine rock outcrops while a local Afar man watches over them. The Awash River hides behind the trees on the horizon. In this area, fossil remains have been found more than once that are extremely important for understanding the course of human evolution, including an almost complete skeleton of the oldest probable human ancestor known to us. Photo: David L. Brill


  • Photo: David L. Brill


  • Ahamed Elema, a leader of one of the Afar tribes and a member of the expedition, likes to joke with Tim White, one of the project leaders, during a short rest. Photo: David L. Brill


  • Photo: David L. Brill


  • The other two project leaders, Berhane Asfo (pictured) and Giday Walde-Gabriel, along with graduate student Leah Morgan, pay close attention not only to what is under their feet, but also to what is around them. Photo: David L. Brill



  • Dust rises into the air and stands in a column as people begin to comb the area where fragments of the skeleton of Homo sapiens were found. Loose material from the surface of the earth is swept away and then sifted through a sieve (in the background). The perimeter of the excavation area is marked with blue flags, and the locations of finds are marked with yellow flags. Photo: Tim D. White

  • Photo: John Foster

  • Herto, Bori Peninsula, Ethiopia. The child’s skull is evidence of an ancient ritual (in the picture: this is how the artist imagines this ritual). Smooth surface skull found near the village of Kherto suggests that it was often handled. That is, probably 160-154 thousand years ago, the remains of this child were relics that were revered by ancient people. But we will never know what specific meaning they put into this shrine. Photo: John Foster

  • Photo: John Foster

  • Hata, Bori Peninsula, Ethiopia. Our possible ancestors, Australopithecus, were more prey for lions and hyenas than competitors in the hunt. However, as early as 2.6 million years ago, these apes were using crude stone tools. They picked up carrion, with their primitive tools they scraped meat from the bones of mammals and extracted bone marrow (in the photograph: this is how the artist imagines it). These scavengers only wanted to feed themselves and live another day - but this expansion of the diet had enormous consequences. High-calorie food stimulated the development of the brain (a very energy-consuming organ) and ultimately led to the emergence of the genus Homa. Photo: John Foster

  • Photo: John Foster

  • Aramis, Ethiopia. A male Ardipithecus ramidus (in a tree) hands nuts to a female standing on the ground. Today, scientists are inclined to believe that Ardipithecus, the oldest hominin known to us, could confidently move on four limbs along branches and at the same time, not very dexterously, on two legs on the ground. The brain will only increase in their descendants; Ardi's brain was no larger than that of a chimpanzee. Photo: John Foster

Judging by the latest findings, the cradle of our intelligence is the Middle Awash region of Ethiopia. This is where you can find out how we became human. Various representatives of the human race have been living in these places for six million years, and it was here that a sensational discovery was made - a new link in our evolution was discovered. The author of National Geographic, together with a scientific expedition, visited Middle Awash and was convinced: Adam’s brain was larger than ours, meat made us human, and love made our ancestors walk on two legs.

Text: Jamie Shreve

The Afar Desert is fraught with many dangers. Death awaits a person everywhere: wild animals, steep cliffs, skirmishes of local tribes... Despite all this, in the Ethiopian region of Middle Awash, located around Lake Yardi and belonging to the Afar people, there is already long years paleoanthropologists are conducting research. And they would not agree to exchange this region full of dangers for the calmest corner of the world, because there is no place on Earth where it would be better than in Middle Awash to trace the evolutionary path of humanity - from a humble monkey to a species in whose hands the future lies planets. It was here, in Middle Awash, that scientists made an amazing discovery. The project participants, led by Tim White, Berhane Asfo and Giday Walde-Gabriel, prepared the materials for the sensational publication for 15 years and made them public only in 2009. So, our hitherto unknown ancestors, a new stage of evolution, have been discovered. Perhaps this is it missing link in the story of the transformation of ape into man? Homo sapiens: how Adam was found. The remains of hominids (some scientists include in this family the genus of people (Homo) and our near and distant fossil ancestors) were found in 14 layers of the Middle Awash, dating back to different geological eras. That is, it was here, on the territory of Ethiopia, that our distant ancestors gradually became more and more intelligent over the course of several million years.

2.5 million years ago, certain “they”, the owners of tools, came to Khata. Not everyone was able to leave here...
The secret of this treasure trove of paleoanthropologists is that the fossils here are very well preserved thanks to the Afar Basin, located directly above the widening fault earth's crust. The depression is constantly deepening - and ancient bones come to the surface, securely buried millions of years ago by volcanoes, earthquakes and sediment accumulations. Today, in the Middle Awash, traveling from one era to another takes a couple of days, as I discovered when I joined the expedition of Tim White, a paleoanthropologist from Berkeley. His team went through all the places where the remains of our ancestors were found in Middle Awash, delving further into history and getting closer to the origins of the mind, in order to eventually get to a new link - the most ancient human ancestor known to us. Our expedition consists of two dozen scientists and students, as well as six armed guards (in modern Ethiopia you have to be prepared for anything). We go to the Afar village of Kherto. Next to me, the most diverse group imaginable is chatting animatedly: a strong and lean 58-year-old American White, a former director National Museum Ethiopia and a very friendly man Asfo, geologist from New Mexico Walde-Gabriel, geologist Bill Hart from the University of Miami and even the leader of the Afar Bori-Modaitu tribe - Ahamed Elema, a longtime admirer of paleoanthropology. It is not surprising that the young shepherds we met - a boy and a girl with a herd of goats - are keenly interested in who we are. The Afar are a pastoral people, and little has changed in their life over the past 500 years, except for the introduction of firearms. We approach a village - grass-covered huts and hedges of thorny bushes, with the petrified remains of hippopotamuses sticking out from under the yellowish sand here and there. And nearby we notice a teardrop-shaped stone tool, about 12 centimeters in length. The Afar people do not make tools from stone - we have reached our first window into the past. Here White's group discovered a perfectly preserved hominid skull in 1997. Geologist Walde-Gabriel, having collected pieces of obsidian and pumice (which are more valuable to him than gold because they can usually be dated) in the same layer, found out that the skull is between 160 and 154 thousand years old. And this is the skull of the most ancient Homo sapiens found to date, Tim White is sure. These are the remains of the first famous person sapiens who lived in Africa when the common ancestors of humanity lived here. The fact is that geneticists, having compared DNA modern people from different regions of the Earth, came to the conclusion: all of humanity descended from one group of people who lived in Africa at exactly this time - 200-100 thousand years ago. Although the theory of African origin is not yet generally accepted, the time-appropriate skull from Herto has already become significant evidence and even a symbol of it. The first person is too smart. What did Adam look like? His elongated face makes him similar to earlier and more primitive species of Homo. But the most remarkable thing about the wide, rounded skull is its size: 1450 cubic centimeters in volume - more than that of our average contemporary! The second, less well-preserved skull, found nearby, was even larger. "We know a few things about these early people, such as the fact that they loved meat, especially hippopotamus meat," White says. Many mammal bones found at Kherto show evidence of impacts from stone tools. So far, however, it is impossible to say for sure whether these people were hunting or while they were picking up the scraps of predators. No traces of fire or other signs of permanent residence were found, so it is unclear where the “people from Kherto” lived. Their stone tools are complex to make, but not very different from tools that were made a hundred thousand years earlier or a hundred thousand years later. There are no figurines and other works of art similar to those discovered in the European Upper Paleolithic, there are no bows or objects made of metal, there are no traces of cultivation of the land. But here there is some evidence of the spiritual life of the first man. Asfo found the skull of a child about six years old. The notches found on it (as well as on the skull of an adult, which was worse preserved) indicated that the flesh had been carefully removed from it, and in such a way that one could rather assume some kind of ritual than cannibalism. The surface of the small skull is smoothly polished, a sign that it has been handled frequently. Perhaps the skull was passed on to each other, venerated as relics are venerated. And this happened over the lives of many generations - until someone put it in last time where it has remained to this day. Homo erectus: grandfather of Adam. We were just at the point “200 thousand years ago”, and now we’ll jump straight back a million years to meet Adam’s “grandfather” from Herto. To do this, after a quick snack, we go to the site known as Dakani-hilo, or simply Daka. The sedimentary rocks of Dhaka are a million years old and the remains found here are just as old.
It was possible to extract an almost complete skeleton of the individual. It was a completely unknown genus of hominids, and a very ancient one at that.
In late 1997, graduate student Henry Gilbert, while exploring Daka, noticed the top of the skull, which erosion had gradually released from the sediment. By evening, the team had cut out the 50-kilogram sandstone ball containing the fossil and carefully wrapped it in medical plaster bandages. At a museum in Addis Ababa, sandstone was carefully removed using toothpicks and porcupine quills to reveal the entire top of a skull belonging to a representative of the species Homo erectus (one of its subspecies is known as Pithecanthropus). Homo erectus, first found in Indonesia, is one of the most likely direct ancestors of Homo sapiens. In terms of body size and proportions of limbs, he was already very similar to us. His typical tool was a double-edged stone hand ax, the like of which Elema shows me: a large piece of black basalt, worked on all sides, the sharp end broken off. This is, of course, a cruder weapon than the ones I just saw in Herto. But with its help, Homo erectus successfully adapted to a variety of conditions and, it seems, was even the first hominid migrant to leave Africa (this happened about two million years ago), after which he managed to reach Southeast Asia. The volume of the skull of a man from Dhaka is a thousand cubic centimeters, which is much less than that of Homo sapiens. It's even worse when it comes to innovation: Homo erectus's tools remain essentially the same for a million years, which, in the words of one anthropologist, was "a period of almost unimaginable uniformity." “Homo erectus was amazingly successful, covering enormous distances when migrating,” White said. - And most importantly, his ecological niche determined by the use of tools. If we delve further into the past, to a place where this factor did not exist, a completely different world will appear before us.” Mysterious owners of guns. To get to these distant places and find the ancestors of Homo erectus, we only had to take one step. Not far from Dhaka, a huge chunk of time was erased from the sequence of time layers by the whim of erosion. Having stepped over this gap, we were transported another one and a half million years ago and came out onto a ledge above a bare plain, riddled with cracks and ravines, ash-purple in the midday haze. The rocks lying below us are Khata, a window into an even more distant past. Here I happened to be convinced: the work of a paleoanthropologist is similar to the work of a detective. The same tasks - to find the slightest evidence (in the case of a paleoanthropologist - the presence of our distant ancestors) and, using indirect traces, to restore the full picture of events. The difference is that the “evidence” of paleoanthropologists is sometimes so insignificant that forensic experts would simply not notice it. Thus, in 1996, White's group carefully examined the fossilized bones of antelopes, horses and other mammals in Hut. And not in vain - as a result, scientists noticed traces of notches on them made by stone tools as much as two and a half million years ago! These were some of the earliest evidence of the use of tools. “The marks on the antelope's jaw indicate that its tongue was cut out,” White says. “This means that they used tools to extract edible parts from animal carcasses.” So, undoubtedly, two and a half million years ago, some “they” visited Khata, the mysterious owners of very ancient tools. But who are these “they”? Did they already belong to the genus Homo (that is, people), like Homo erectus, or were they apes who, however, already made tools? It turned out to be difficult to give an answer, especially since the guns themselves were not found nearby - the one who cut up the carcasses then left and took them away. "They didn't live here," White says. “They came, did their job and left.” Nevertheless, scientists carefully explored this site in search of “them” - and were eventually rewarded. Not all “they” were able to leave Khata: a few meters from the remains of the animals, researchers discovered a femur, several arm bones and a fragment of the lower jaw that belonged to one hominid. The femur was quite long, a feature of Homo, but the forearm was also long, a feature of apes, which rely on all four limbs to move. The following season, skull fragments were found. Some features, especially the size of the front teeth, made it similar to Homo. However, the molars and premolars were simply huge! And the volume of the cranium was only 450 cubic centimeters (versus a thousand in Homo erectus). The group named the owner of the ancient tools Australopithecus garhi (“garhi” means “surprise” in the Afar language), deciding that it was the new kind Australopithecus, one of the oldest hominid genera known to us. It is still not known for sure whether Australopithecines are our direct ancestors or “uncles”, but, however, Garhi lived at the right time and in the right place to be the direct ancestor of Homo. Australopithecus: Lucy's brothers. Garhi, who lived two and a half million years ago and knew how to make tools, is a rather late species of Australopithecus. And to get to know its earlier ancestors, we had to make our way through the territory of the warlike Alisera tribe, whom scientists optimistically described as “cowboys always ready to grab the trunk.” To avoid trouble, we paid a courtesy visit (accompanied by six police officers, by the way) to the dusty village of Ajantole on the edge of the Awash River floodplain. We were lucky that Elema was with us: the leader of Bori-Modaitu, being the head of the region, still enjoys the respect of all the Afar tribes of Middle Awash. Afar people traditionally greet each other with a daghu ceremony: quickly kissing hands and exchanging news. In other villages we visited, locals gathered in droves to organize a daga. Here only a few people came out to greet us, and the chief did not even look out of the hut, so Elema went inside to talk to him.
And then hominids become more and more interested in meat, and the result is you and me!
White, meanwhile, tried to arrange a dag with one thin young man, but he quickly left. “A couple of years ago this guy got mad because I wouldn’t hire him,” White said. “He then grabbed the knife and others had to calm him down.” Despite all our efforts, we still had to skip the next stop on the time walk: it should have been made on the other side of the river, and as a result of the war between the Afar and Issa peoples, the lands along the river became a dangerous no man's land, which is good for nature, but bad for fossil hunters. It’s a pity - the jaw and skeleton fragments of an older australopithecus than the Garhi were found there - Australopithecus afarensis (age - 3.4 million years). The most famous representative of Au. afarensis is the famous Lucy, found in 1974 in East Africa. Its age is 3.2 million years, and its brain volume was not too different from that of a chimpanzee. However, the structure of her pelvis and limbs indicate that Lucy was already walking on two legs. Some scientists, however, argue that long curved fingers, Long hands and some other features of Lucy indicate that she also climbed trees as well as a chimpanzee. But we could get to the place where Lucy's elder relative was found, so we headed southwest through the erosion-riddled wasteland known as the Central Awash Complex (CCA). Periodic eruptions left thin layers of volcanic tuff between the sedimentary deposits - like layers of cream between the layers of a giant cake. Over time, the magma lifted the “cake” and tilted it, revealing the sediments and tuff between them (and this can often be dated). Our route passed along inclined layers, so that in space we moved horizontally, and in time vertically, penetrating deeper and deeper into the past. The fact that in the past the magnetic poles of the Earth changed places more than once helps to navigate in time. One of these changes, known to have occurred 4.18 million years ago, left its mark—magnetized mineral particles aligned with the ancient pole—in some CCA rocks. And right under this stamp of time is the site where the jawbone of the hominid Australopithecus anamensis was found in 1994. This species of Australopithecus (remains of representatives of the species were also found in two areas of Kenya) is slightly older and more primitive than Lucy, however, judging by the tibia and femur, it also walked on two legs. Actually, the main difference between the two types is the time of their existence. Ardipithecus: the missing link? Finally we got to main goal our journey. The sun-scorched flat area where the sensational discovery was made is outwardly unremarkable. Except perhaps for an uneven semicircle made of pieces of basalt. The pile of stones marks the site where, on December 17, 1992, paleoanthropologist Gen Suwa from Tokyo noticed a hominid tooth protruding from the ground. A few days later, fossil hunter Alemayehu Asfo found a fragment of a child's jaw nearby with a molar sticking out. “This tooth was unlike any tooth known to science,” White says. “We had something completely new in front of us!” The group outlined the border of the area, named it Aramis (not at all in honor of the most gallant of the musketeers, as one might think, but in honor of the Afar tribe living in these parts) - and began to comb the territory up and down. A year later, an unworn fang, other teeth and a hand bone were discovered. In 1994, scientists also found hand and foot bones, a tibia, and fragments of a skull and pelvis. At first no one dared to think about it - but it soon became clear that in addition to individual bones, an almost complete skeleton of the individual had been recovered. And as complete as Lucy’s skeleton, but unlike her or anything that paleoanthropologists had ever seen before. This was a new, completely unknown genus of hominids, and very, very ancient. The genus was given the name Ardipithecus (ardipithecus - from the Afar "ardi" - "earth", "floor"), and the species was named ramidus (from the Afar "ramid" - "root"). Apparently, most of the remains of Ardipithecus were stolen by hyenas - and only the skeleton of one female miraculously escaped their teeth. Probably after ancient woman, today named Ardi, died, her remains were trampled into the mud by passing hippos or other herbivores - thus saving the skeleton from scavengers. Having lain underground for 4.4 million years, the remains could have turned to dust after spending at least a year or two on the surface. “It's more than luck,” White says. “This is a real miracle!” Meanwhile, Walde-Gabriel found out that the deposits with the bones of Ardipithecus were sandwiched between layers of volcanic ash - the Gaala tuff and the daam-aatu tuff (that is, “camel” and “baboon” - these are the romantic Afar names given to the ash layers in Middle Awash). The age of both tuffs is approximately the same - 4.4 million years. That is, very little time passed between the two eruptions - perhaps no more than a millennium, so the lifespan of Ardipithecus can be determined quite accurately. It took another two years to extract the skeleton from the rock, and more than a decade to clean, process and catalog six thousand bone fragments from Aramis, conduct isotope analysis of the teeth and create digital versions of the bones. For 15 years, only White and a few of his colleagues had access to the skeleton. The rest of the world waited patiently for the group to publish the results of Ardi's research—research that ultimately blew everyone away. Firstly, before the discovery of Ardi, scientists believed for more than a hundred years: our ancestors began to walk on two limbs when, having left the forests, they went out into the open savannah, where there was no need to climb trees, but it was necessary to move long distances and look above tall grass. However, the characteristics of the teeth of Ardipithecus, as well as analysis of the enamel, indicate that the diet of the species was consistent with life in the forest. If these creatures were indeed bipedal, the time has come to say goodbye to one of the main postulates of the theory of human evolution. However, was Ardie bipedal? There are arguments both for and against. (Read more about this oddity, as well as other Ardi mysteries). Interestingly, scientists were previously sure that Lucy's ancestors (which is probably Ardi) should have looked even more like chimpanzees. However, Ardi decisively refuted this hypothesis - some of her traits are too primitive even for chimpanzees, while others, on the contrary, are too progressive. That is, although humans and modern apes descend from a common ancestor, their evolutionary lines likely developed in completely different directions. And it is not surprising that when I asked whether Ardi’s transitional structure allowed her to be called the very “intermediate link” between ape and man, White replied with irritation: “The term itself is unfortunate in so many ways that you don’t even know where to start. Worst of all, it suggests that at some point there lived on Earth a creature that was half chimpanzee and half human. Ardi must bury this delusion once and for all.” The main value of Ardi's discovery, according to White, is that it allows us to imagine human evolution in three stages. The first stage is Ardi itself, that is, the genus Ardipithecus. This is a primitive, but probably already bipedal, forest dweller. The second stage is the genus Australopithecus. Their brain is still small, but their upright posture is fully developed, their habitat is not limited to forests, and they begin to use tools. And then hominids, picking up scraps from predators, become more and more addicted to high-calorie meat, which promotes brain development, and the result is voila! – the genus Homo: erectus, sapiens and you and me. And if we move deeper again, what did that very last common ancestor look like, uniting us with chimpanzees, who once lived but has not yet been found? Most likely, according to White, he was like Ardi, only without the features that allowed her to walk on two legs. But that's just a guess—and if there's one thing I learned in Middle Awash, it's to not trust guesses. “If you want to know what something looked like,” White says, “you only have to do one thing: go out and find it.”

From 1967 to 1971 in the river valley The Omo (Ethiopia) expedition, led by K. Arambur, I. Coppens, L. Leakey and F. Howell, discovered many skeletal remains of australopithecines, similar to Australopithecus africanus and the massive australopithecines found by Broome. Australopithecines - fragments of the jaw, skull and skeleton of the limbs - were also found in Kenya, near Lake. Turkana (Legatem town) and in other places.

In 1973-1976. in East Africa in Afar (lowland area in Ethiopia), a French-American expedition worked in the village of Hadar. Young anthropologist Donald Johanson made a unique discovery. He found a complete skeleton (40% bone intact), miniature, belonging to an adult female (Fig. 12). This made it possible for the first time to make a complete reconstruction of the external appearance of this creature (Fig. 13). The whole camp was excited, no one slept, they turned on a tape recorder with a recording of the Beatles song “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.” From that moment on, the find received the name “Lucy” and that is how it is known in the world of anthropologists.

Her height was only 105 cm, weight 27 kg, although her wisdom teeth had erupted and were worn out. Judging by her teeth, she was 25-30 years old, while Lucy’s geological age is 3.5 million. This is the oldest skeleton of an upright hominid. This is the meaning of Lucy - in her antiquity and in her integrity.

On next year Johanson found the remains of about 30 individuals of the same species as Lucy, which he called “the first family” (Fig. 14). After analyzing the finds, D. Johanson and T. White found that they have very primitive signs of the dental system and occupy an intermediate position between monkeys and humans, with some bias towards humans. The capacity of the skull is 380-450 cc. Considerable variability was found in the skeletal sizes of Lucy and other members of the "first family", associated with sexual dimorphism - males were larger than females.

Similar finds were made by Richard (son of Louis) and Mary Leakey in Tanzania, the town of Letoli. The similarity was noted in the structure of the jaw, which had U shape. Both hominids have already mastered bipedal gait. In Letoli, fossilized footprints were found in volcanic ash; the shape of the foot was almost human. Their arms were longer than those of humans, the fingers of the hands were more curved than those of humans, and the bones of the wrist showed similarities to those of monkeys. The brain is the same size as that of a chimpanzee. In general, hominids looked like this: the body is small, mostly human-type, but the shape of the head is more similar to monkeys. The jaws are large and protruding, there is no chin, the upper part of the face is small, and the cranial vault is very low. There is no evidence that they used tools. It was believed that Lucy did not fully straighten her legs, placing one leg in front of the other. The pelvis is oval, very elongated, the proportions of the limbs are very similar to pliopithecus and modern marmosets.

The incisors had massive edges and were biting, the fangs had long roots, the forehead was low, sloping, brow ridges small. The thickening of the enamel on the teeth was probably associated with feeding on seeds, which required additional effort when cracking them.

A mosaic combination of features in the skeletal structure is characteristic of the first representatives of the hominid line. Johanson and White named Lucy - Australopithecus afarensis (after the place of discovery).

Differences in the structure of individuals in the first family, as well as differences in finds in Letoli, may be associated with sexual dimorphism. The very peculiar shape of the small pelvis - its elongation - indicated a more difficult birth than, for example, in chimpanzees - the price to pay for walking upright.

In these early hominids, a number of adaptations to arboreal locomotion can still be traced - this is the ratio of the lengths of the upper and lower limbs, some lengthening of the arms, curved phalanges of the hands and feet. Primitive features can be traced in other organ systems - small skull capacity, within the variability of modern pongids, on average 413 cubic cm, occipital ridges on the skull of males, large fangs, the presence of diastemas, strong protrusion of the face. All these characteristics can be seen in Australopithecus afarensis morphological type ancestral form, most consistent with the idea of ​​a “transitional link” between

40 years ago, in the valley of an Ethiopian river, guests from the West - anthropologists from the USA and France - found 52 fragments of a female skeleton. The skeleton is almost 40 percent preserved - a very rare phenomenon for anthropology! There was general excitement in the scientists’ camp; they played the Beatles song “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” on the tape recorder, after which they named the discovery. As it turned out later, it was a representative of Australopithecus afarensis: one of the first upright ancestors of humans. In connection with this anniversary, Lenta.ru recalls the most famous discoveries of the fossil remains of australopithecus, Neanderthals and our other distant relatives.







Neanderthal man from Shanidar Cave (Iran). Many of the skeletons from this cave show signs of illness and injury: for example, a 40-year-old man suffered from arthritis, was blind in one eye and crippled, deprived right hand. People with such ailments could not survive on their own, which indicates the developed mutual assistance among Neanderthals, as well as the use medicinal plants. Finally, the high concentration of pollen in the burials suggests that Neanderthals were familiar with funeral rites: they covered the graves of their relatives with fresh flowers. Photo: S.Plailly / E.Daynes / Science Photo Library / East News


On the morning of November 30, 1974, in the Ethiopian Afar Desert, Donald Johanson found a fossilized fragment of a human, possibly a skull and other bones that made up about 40% of the ancient female skeleton. He believed that these bones were the earliest human or anthropoid remains ever found.

That evening, Johanson and his colleagues were drinking beer and listening to the Beatles' song "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds." He later wrote: “At some point on that unforgettable evening... we somehow spontaneously began to call our find Lucy.”

And since then, the creature he found, who died 3.5 million years ago, has been known as Lucy.

Lucy was not a person, but she was not, as Johanson argued, a monkey. Her height did not exceed 106 cm, she walked upright, but her arms reached to her knees, and her shoulders, chest and pelvic bones seemed to be better suited for climbing trees.

Unfortunately, the front of her skull was not found and the exact volume of her brain could not be determined. However, from the fragments it was established that it was only slightly larger than the brain volume of a chimpanzee and was approximately 230-400 cc.

Lucy was classified as one of a group of creatures that shared characteristics of both apes and humans. They were first discovered in South Africa in 1925 and were called "southern apes" or australopithecines.

It is now believed that there were at least six species of this half-man, half-ape, of which Lucy at that time was the most ancient representative known to science.

There is no evidence that Lucy's relatives learned to make tools. However, they were apparently still alive about 1 million years ago, when they undoubtedly encountered early man who was already skillfully creating a variety of stone tools.

This raises an uncomfortable question: can this primitive creature really be considered the ancestor of man, as many modern scientists propose and which is uncritically accepted by most journalists? The most ardent supporter of the idea that Lucy is a human ancestor is Johanson himself.

The human species is classified in the genus Homo. Modern man is called Homo sapiens (a concept that includes such “cave men” as Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons). Our immediate ancestor is considered to be a more primitive species of man - Homo erectus, whose remains are found in different parts peace.

But here a fierce debate begins among experts: there are quite a large number of seemingly more ancient and more primitive species of early ape man, but they exist in some way on the margins of archaeology. So few fossil remains have been found that all theories are based on an extremely poor evidence base.

Johanson's claim that Lucy was an ancestor of real humans is fiercely disputed by Richard Leakey, a member of the most famous line of early human experts.

His father Louis and mother Mary were pioneers in this field, and his wife Maeve is also a recognized expert. She continues to conduct excavations and publish works on this topic.

Richard and Maeve Leakey are cautious; they do not share the view that Lucy and her relatives are our direct ancestors, as Johanson insists.

Yes, the Leakes recognize the family tree found on this moment various species of Australopithecus, but are in no hurry to connect the line of development of Homo with the line of development of any of them.

And although they admit that such a connection probably needs to be made somewhere, they prefer to wait for additional facts to emerge. This position enjoys considerable support among other scientists.

Richard avoids direct confrontation on this topic, limiting himself to references to those facts that seem to provide convincing evidence that the discovered remains of Lucy and other australopithecines are much more similar to apes than to humans.

He believes that humans descended from some much older creature that lived perhaps 7.5 million years ago, and whose remains have not yet been discovered.

According to his conclusion, humanity has much more ancient history than scientists like Johanson believe. Louis Leakey originally believed that the roots of humanity could go back 40 million years; true, in modern science this hypothesis is not accepted.

It is clear that fossil evidence in its current form will not clarify questions about our evolution. To achieve this, we would need to find many more fossils, including specimens preserved in substantially complete form.

But more than 70 years have passed since the Leakes first began their excavations in the Olduvai Gorge in East Africa, and during this time extensive and detailed surveys have been carried out in the most likely geological strata.

If such evidence existed, then, one must assume, some traces of it would have been discovered?

Maybe researchers are looking in the wrong place? Or do they misidentify fossils that have already been found? Or both?

To consider these possibilities, it is necessary to approach these questions from a different angle, first by exploring what kind of environment might have given rise to the anatomical features of modern humans and where in Africa - or elsewhere - such an environment might be found.

About 25-30 million years ago, huge forests covered most of the land. In these forests, a small creature the size of a squirrel evolved from a small creature that walked on all fours different types primates.

20 million years ago we find evidence of a widespread distribution of numerous species of arboreal monkeys. But about 15 million years ago, forests began to gradually disappear.

10 million years ago, monkeys still dominated the remaining forests, but then, for some mysterious reason, almost all fossil evidence associated with monkeys ceased. Why is an unsolvable mystery.

The time period from about 8 million years ago until the age of Lucy (about 4.5 million years ago) is the "dark ages" for fossil primates.

Until recently, excavations that yielded tens of thousands of fossils of other animals from the period yielded only one humerus, a tooth, and a jaw fragment with one tooth.

In 1995, Maeve Leakey identified a new species of very ancient Australopithecus based on a series of finds, including a nearly complete jaw, part of a shin bone, and pieces of a skull and teeth found in eastern Lake Turkana. The finds were just over 3.9 million years old.

An even older find of fossilized teeth, part of a mandible, skull and hand fragments made in Ethiopia by Dr. Tim White was assigned in 1995 to another presumed earlier genus and species. Approximately 4.4 million years old.

Despite the enthusiasm for these finds, this is not enough for a period of almost 4 million years. Moreover, there is no worthy of attention explanation that could clarify this lack of data.

According to the orthodox "savannah" hypothesis, it was during this period of the "Dark Ages" that forest areas decreased so much in the wake of climate change that the growing population of primates faced a lack of food supply.

Over time, this base shrank so much that one of the groups of primates decided to look for food outside the forests. She moved to the vast grassy plains of Africa - to the savannah.

And it was precisely in these spaces that those characteristics that are now known to be characteristic of humans had an advantage: upright walking, enlargement of the brain, disappearance of hair. Yes, by natural selection, those beings who demonstrated them supplanted those who did not possess them.

Of course, this theory leaves a lot unexplained. None of the most noticeable physical characteristics humans would have no obvious advantage in this new habitat - in the vast expanses of a vast plain, replete with formidable and fast predators.

Of all the primates that lived in the increasingly crowded forests, only one - our ancestor - got up from all fours and moved on two legs into the savannah. Why?

Experiencing the same food shortage, no other monkey species did the same. Why?

The savannah with its predators was a truly hostile environment. And we are, however, asked to believe that a species entered into it, abandoning its habit of running - and very quickly - on all fours for an upright posture that would rob it of speed.

It would be quite natural to expect that all these reckless monkeys would be quickly exterminated.

From an animal's point of view, running on two legs is completely stupid; most of The energy expended in this case is spent on holding the body upright, and not on pushing it forward and developing speed. This is very ineffective way movement is a real challenge when pursued by a hungry predator.

Why did some group of our ancestors change? The answer to this is no.

Why does man exist? How are we different from other great apes? Obviously, because we have a larger brain, developed speech, are not covered with hair and walk upright on two legs. However, this is just what immediately comes to mind. In fact, there are hundreds of distinctive features.

Almost unbelievably, science has no clear explanation for the evolution of any of these the most important characteristics. Of course, some explanations appeared, but not for long: flaws were found in all explanations.

Too many human characteristics seem inexplicable, and therefore scientists, unable to clarify the question, have avoided answering.

Biologists, in particular, paid attention to those aspects of our body that seemed to undermine the evolutionary process. Such as brain growth, loss of body hair not seen in anyone else, a unique way of breathing that also makes speech possible, and a distinctive pattern of sexual behavior.

It appears that the brain has steadily increased in size: first, Lucy's brain is the size of a chimpanzee's; Australopithecus brain - approximately 440 cc; about 650 - in a creature considered to be early man proper; from 950 to 1200 - in homo erectus; 1350 is the average for a modern person.

This increase in head volume meant that significant anatomical changes were necessary during the transition from ape-like to anthropoid creatures - if only so that the female could give birth to a calf with such a large head.

For this reason, the human female pelvis has a very different shape from the pelvis of a female ape.

And the significance of this increase in brain volume is so great that in a modern person, in the first year of life after birth, the brain continues to grow in such large proportions that its size actually doubles. A woman would not be able to give birth if the baby's brain was fully formed from the very beginning.

Loss of hair is also a kind of exceptional feature of modern man. This hairline apparently protected the body from the rays of the sun and from the cold at night.

How could living in a savannah - where it is hot during the day and very cold at night - lead to the formation of this trait and its consolidation through natural selection?

There was no answer and no...