Kenyanthropus
Sign in to saveKenyanthropus ('man from Kenya') is a genus of extinct hominin identified from the Lomekwi site by Lake Turkana, Kenya, dated to 3.3 to 3.2 million years ago during the Middle Pliocene. It contains one species, K. platyops, but may also include the two-million-year-old Homo rudolfensis, or K. rudolfensis. Before its naming in 2001, Australopithecus afarensis was widely regarded as the only australopithecine to exist during the Middle Pliocene, but Kenyanthropus evinces a greater diversity than once acknowledged. Kenyanthropus is most recognisable by an unusually flat face and small teeth for s
Species
GENUS
- KingdomAnimalia
- PhylumChordata
- ClassMammalia
- OrderPrimates
- FamilyHominidae
Kenyanthropus is een geslacht van uitgestorven rechtoplopende mensachtigen. De enige soort die hiertoe gerekend wordt is Kenyanthropus platyops uit het Boven Plioceen. Voor de beschrijving van deze soort werd gelijk het geslacht als nieuw ingevoerd. Er is geen overeenstemming over de taxonomie van dit geslacht. Een deel van de paleoantropologen ziet geen aanleiding voor een aparte taxonomische status en beschouwen Kenyanthropus als een jonger synoniem van Australopithecus of als een verwant van Homo rudolfensis. De belangrijkste kritiek behelst echter de zeer slechte fossilisatiestaat van de schedel die eigenlijk niet toelaat enige conclusie over de taxonomie te trekken. Mocht Kenyanthropus als geldige naam komen te vervallen dan wordt de naam van de enige soort Australopithecus platyops of Homo platyops.
via GBIF
Wikidata facts
- Image
- Kenyanthropus platyops-MGL 95210-P5030042-white.jpg
Show 1 more fact
- taxon name
- Kenyanthropus
Sources (1)
via Wikidata · CC0
~17 min read
Article
10 sectionsContents
- Taxonomy
- Discovery
- Age
- Classification
- Anatomy
- Technology
- Palaeoecology
- See also
- References
- External links
Kenyanthropus ('man from Kenya') is a genus of extinct hominin identified from the Lomekwi site by Lake Turkana, Kenya, dated to 3.3 to 3.2 million years ago during the Middle Pliocene. It contains one species, K. platyops, but may also include the two-million-year-old Homo rudolfensis, or K. rudolfensis. Before its naming in 2001, Australopithecus afarensis was widely regarded as the only australopithecine to exist during the Middle Pliocene, but Kenyanthropus evinces a greater diversity than once acknowledged. Kenyanthropus is most recognisable by an unusually flat face and small teeth for such an early hominin, with values on the extremes or beyond the range of variation for australopithecines in regard to these features. Multiple australopithecine species may have coexisted by foraging for different food items (niche partitioning), which may be the reason why these apes anatomically differ in features related to chewing.
The Lomekwi site also yielded the earliest stone tool industry, the Lomekwian, characterised by the rudimentary production of simple flakes by pounding a core against an anvil or with a hammerstone. It may have been manufactured by Kenyanthropus, but it is unclear if multiple species were present at the site or not. The knappers were using volcanic rocks collected no more than from the site. Kenyanthropus seems to have lived on a lakeside or floodplain environment featuring forests and grasslands.