Kenyanthropus platyops
From Freepedia
| Kenyanthropus platyops Conservation status: Fossil | ||||||||||||||||
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| Kenyanthropus platyops Leakey et al., 2001 |
Kenyanthropus platyops is a 3.5 to 3.2 million year old (Pliocene) extinct Hominid species that was discovered in Lake Turkana, Kenya in 1999 by Meave Leakey. The fossil found features of a broad flat face with a toe bone that suggests it probably walked upright. Teeth are intermediate between typical human and typical ape forms. Kenyanthropus platyops, which means "Flat faced man of Kenya", is the only described species in the genus. However, if some paleoanthropologists are correct (Tim White, 2003), Kenyanthropus may not even represent a valid taxon, as the specimen (KNM-WT 40000) is so horribly distorted by matrix-filled cracks that meaningful morphologic characters are next to impossible to robustly assess. It may simply be a specimen of Australopithecus afarensis, which is known from the same time period and geographic area.
References
- Meave G. Leakey, Fred Spoor, Frank H. Brown, Patrick N. Gathogo, Christopher Kiarie, Louise N. Leakey and Ian McDougall (2001). New hominin genus from eastern Africa shows diverse middle Pliocene lineages. Nature, 410:433-40.
External links
- The flat faced man of Kenya (Nature)
- Diversity or Distortion? (Science)
- A small site dedicated to the Kenyanthropus
