New footprints from Laetoli (Tanzania) provide evidence for marked body size variation in early hominins

Autor: Fidelis T Masao, Elgidius B Ichumbaki, Marco Cherin, Angelo Barili, Giovanni Boschian, Dawid A Iurino, Sofia Menconero, Jacopo Moggi-Cecchi, Giorgio Manzi
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2016
Předmět:
Zdroj: eLife, Vol 5 (2016)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 2050-084X
DOI: 10.7554/eLife.19568
Popis: Laetoli is a well-known palaeontological locality in northern Tanzania whose outstanding record includes the earliest hominin footprints in the world (3.66 million years old), discovered in 1978 at Site G and attributed to Australopithecus afarensis. Here, we report hominin tracks unearthed in the new Site S at Laetoli and referred to two bipedal individuals (S1 and S2) moving on the same palaeosurface and in the same direction as the three hominins documented at Site G. The stature estimates for S1 greatly exceed those previously reconstructed for Au. afarensis from both skeletal material and footprint data. In combination with a comparative reappraisal of the Site G footprints, the evidence collected here embodies very important additions to the Pliocene record of hominin behaviour and morphology. Our results are consistent with considerable body size variation and, probably, degree of sexual dimorphism within a single species of bipedal hominins as early as 3.66 million years ago.
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