Locomotion

Locomotion

obtained from: http://smault23.deviantart.com/art/skeleton-dancing-459443929

-no post crania with the Black Skull and Australopithecus aethiopicus

-robust australopithecines were bipedal, not as good at bipedality as humans. 

-"Pieces of the back- bone, pelvis, lower limb, and foot indicate that the "robust" australopithecines were capable bipeds." Rightmire (1989)

-Finding evidence on the locomotion of robust australopithecines has been difficult, this is the first article I have found that discusses their locomotion. However, all of the other articles I have read, along with what I have learned in class, agrees that all australopithecines were bipedal. While looking at australopithecine skulls you can tell they were bipeds by the placement of the foremen magnum at the bottom of the skull.

All information obtained from Rightmire, G. Philip. (1989) Review: Species of Near-Humans. Science, 1514(4925), 514.

 

Classification & Context

WT-1700 aka the Black Skull

-found in West Turkana at the Turkana Basin

-fossil is the black-colored

-about 2.55 mya

-scientists originally thought the fossil was much older

-fossil was dated using stratigraphy and comparing its position to other "dated marker beds" Clark (1988)

-hard to date fossils found in Turkana Basin because "the geology is poorly understood" Clark (1988)

 

photo accessed from: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tab_in_Turkana_Basin,_Kenya_%22tools_of_the_trade%22.jpg

Work Cited: Clark, G.A. (1988). 
Some Thoughts on the Black Skull: An Archeologist's Assessment of WT-17000 (A. boisei) and Systematics in Human Paleontology. American Anthropologist, 90(2), 359.