Grace Widdifield

Intro to Phys/Bio Anthropology

Fossil Analysis

Locomotion

This fossil species moved about their environment by walking bipedally on two

feet. One piece of evidence to support bipedalism is that the fossil has a centralized

foramen magnum. The anterior position of the foramen magnum allows for the skull to

be over the spine and the rest of the body, and for the primate to have an upright

posture. The foramen magnum being on the bottom of the cranium also allows the fossil

to have their eyes facing forwards and the head is not tilted forwards or backwards. This

is a good position when the primate is moving bipedally since it prevents the primate’s

neck muscles from being overexerted. This species also had a bowl-shaped pelvis

which had a short robust ilium and ischium. The bowl shape of the pelvis allows the

ilium to be positioned laterally and the gluteus minimus and gluteus medius muscles

can attach to the pelvis. The leg muscles support the weight and help the organism

balance while it's on one leg at a time. The broad and short pelvis also helps support

the weight of the upper body, intestines, and organs when the biped is standing upright.

The longitudinal arch in the feet of the fossils also demonstrates bipedalism. The

arch from the base of the toes to the heel in the feet allows for the organism to propel

and push off during each step when walking bipedally. The longitudinal arch in the feet

adds shock absorption which is necessary since the two feet have to bear the weight of

the entire body weight of the organism when walking bipedally on two feet. The fossil’s

femur and tibia are robust, and this is because the primate’s body is now upright and

the femur and tibia bones have to bear more weight. The femur has a long femoral neck
and a bicondylar angle. The bicondylar angle of the femur puts the knee and the bones

below the knee closer to the midline and center of gravity of the body. The long femoral

neck of the femur allows for the long strides when walking bipedally. The obturator

externus groove allows for muscle attachment. The muscle that attaches is the

obturator externus muscle. The obturator externus muscle is used to rotate the hips,

and rotation of the hips is vital with the walking strides of bipedalism.

These primates lived in environments that consisted of pockets of wooded areas,

interspersed throughout a very large, open grassy landscape. The fossils are

considered obligate bipeds meaning that bipedalism is their only form of locomotion that

they use. However, there is evidence that suggests that they could climb and travel

through the trees if they needed to, and it would be helpful since they live in an

environment with pockets of woodlands. Also, the primates possibly could have slept in

sleeping nests in the trees since it is safer than sleeping on the ground because there

are less predators. The evidence is that the fossil’s arms are slightly longer than their

legs, and the hands have small slightly curved phalanges. The curved phalanges makes

it easier for the primates to travel through the trees by grasping the branches. Long

arms would help with being able to reach more and climbing the trees.

Diet

The primate species ate a varied diet with both meat and plants. This species

collected meat when scavenging animal bones. Highly fractured leg bones and skulls

were found at the fossil site, and these bones were scavenged to access the bone
marrow and brains to eat. The description of leg bones and skulls also suggests

scavenging behavior because hunting animals go for more desirable pieces of meat and

they leave the leg and skull bones. In the primate’s environment, there are many

hunting predators like lions, hyenas, and even large bodied primates.

The environment of the fossils also suggests that the primates ate fruit. The

wooded areas that the fossils were from offered a variety of trees and shrubs that have

fruits. The low rounded cusps of the molars provide evidence that the fossil species ate

fruit and had a frugivory diet because the molar cusps are able to crush the fruit

effectively. The primates were not just eating leaves and fruit, but more fibrous plants as

well. Stable isotope data from the teeth shows a C4 signature. This C4 signature shows

that the primates ate plants from a grassland environment with warmer weather. Some

of the plants that left a C4 signature are grasses and sedge plants. The teeth of the

fossils have thick enamel and this points to the species having a varied diet. The thick

teeth enamel allows the species to eat a wide variety of foods including foods that are

hard to chew like fibrous plants.

The primates had a diet with a wide variety of foods, and the primates were not

territorial over their food. The primates would not be territorial over the grass or other

plants since it is so plentiful in the grassland and woodland environments. They were

not territorial over meat either because the meat is opportunistic, meaning the primates

can only get meat when the opportunity arises to scavenge animal bones. Primates can

be territorial over fruit and nuts, but these primates were most likely not territorial over

them since they had other sources of food available to eat besides fruits and nuts.
Tool Use

There is evidence that the primates did use tools. The tools that they used were

from the Oldowan tool technology. The rocks found are not uniform, and they vary in

size and shape. The Oldowan tools do not come out looking the same size and shape

every time. Rocks found at the site were thick and pebble-like with battered, sharp

edges. This description matches the core rocks of the Oldowan technology. A hammer

stone is hit against the core rock to create flakes. The core rock is large and the

battered, sharp edges are where the flakes are taken off. These core rocks could have

potentially been pebble chopper tools that are used for cutting and smashing. The rocks

found at the site that are thinner, with sharp edges are the flakes of the Oldowan

technology. The flakes are the tools that are broken off of the core rock. The round

stones that fit in the hand but have evidence of percussion marks are the

hammerstones. Hammer stones would fit in the primate’s hand, and they are hit against

the cores to create flakes. The percussion marks are evidence of the rocks hitting

against each other.

The stone tools were used for breaking open bones when scavenging for meat.

The animal bones found had abrasions with a V-shape to them and also had abrasions

with parallel sides. The V-shape abrasions are animal teeth marks from the predators

who originally hunted the animal. The abrasions that are straight and parallel are made

from the sharp flakes of the Oldowan tools. At the fossil site, rocks and bones were both

found. This suggests that the site was used to butcher animal bones. In addition, the

primates stole and scavenged the kills of other predators. The primates then created
and used the Oldowan tools on the animal bones, and the primates left the tools at the

site.

Social Structure/Mating Pattern

The social structure of these primates is a multi-male polygyny social structure.

The fossils were found together as a group of up to twenty individuals with adult men,

women, and children fossils. This points to a multi-male polygyny social structure since

in these social structures men, women, and their children all live together.

Sexual dimorphism in the species is present. One piece of evidence that

supports this is that in this species the males are about twenty percent larger than their

female counterparts. The jaws have medium-small canines. The fossils have jaws that

lack diastemas, which are gaps in the mouth that accommodate large canines. When

there is a high amount of sexual dimorphism, males have very large canines. Since

these primates do not have super large canines or a diastema, this shows that the

primates have a lesser degree of sexual dimorphism compared to other primate species

like for example gorillas. The less sexual dimorphism in this species points to a multi

male polygyny social structure compared to a single male polgyny social structure. In a

single male polgyny social structure, there is more sexual dimorphism because there is

one male that mates with a group of females. This causes more competition between

the males. In a multi-male polygyny social structure, there are multiple males that mate

with multiple females so overall there is less competition between the male primates.

This means that sexual dimorphism is still present, but it is present to a lesser degree.
Taxonomy

The fossils found are considered hominins. The fossils are hominins because

they are a part of the group of primates that split off from the ape lineage. They also

have traits in common with other hominin species. One trait is using bipedal locomotion

and this fossil’s postcrania supports this. The skeleton of this fossil species allowed its

body to have an upright posture. Another trait is the hominin has a larger cranial

capacity of around 600 cubic centimeters. In addition, the hominin also has non honing

dentition with no diastema and smaller canines. The fossil species also shows cultural

advances like scavenging for food. The creation of Oldowan tools and opening animal

bones for remaining meat shows higher intelligence as well. The traits that this fossil

species has are shared among hominin species, which classifies these fossils as being

a hominin.

The taxonomic group of these fossils is Homo habilis. The sediments of these

fossils date to between 2.8 to 3 million years old, and Homo habilis fossils also date to

this time period as well. In addition, the location says a lot about the taxonomic group of

the fossils. The fossils of this species were found in east Africa at the Kibish Formation

near the Omo River in Ethiopia, and Homo habilis fossils have been found in east and

south Africa. The taxonomic group of Homo habilis is known for being an early member

of the genus Homo. One characteristic of Homo habilis is they still have some ape-like

features. For example, one characteristic seen in the fossils is that they have long arms.

Homo habilis are also bipedal, and the postcrania of the fossils supports bipedalism.

The Homo habilis species also used stone Oldowan tools. At this fossil site, there is

evidence that the hominins used the Oldowan tool technology for butchering animal
bones. Another characteristic of Homo habilis is they had smaller teeth than the

Australopithecus genus, and ate a diet with a wide variety of foods. The fossils are

classified as being a part of the Homo habilis species as the descriptions of both Homo

habilis and the fossils overlap in many ways.