Kadanuumuu
Encyclopedia
Kadanuumuu is the nickname given a 3.58-million-year-old partial Australopithecus afarensis
fossil discovered in the Afar Region
of Ethiopia in 2005, by a team led by Yohannes Haile-Selassie
, curator of physical anthropology at The Cleveland Museum of Natural History. Based on skeletal analysis, the fossil is believed to conclusively show that the species was fully bipedal.
At more than five feet in stature, Kadanuumuu is much taller than the famous "Lucy
" fossil of the same species discovered in the 1970s, and is approximately 400,000 years older. Among other characteristics, Kadanuumuu's scapula
(part of the shoulder blade), the oldest discovered to date for a hominid, is comparable to that of modern humans, suggesting that the species was land rather than tree-based. Not all researchers agree with this conclusion.
Australopithecus afarensis
Australopithecus afarensis is an extinct hominid that lived between 3.9 and 2.9 million years ago. A. afarensis was slenderly built, like the younger Australopithecus africanus. It is thought that A...
fossil discovered in the Afar Region
Afar Region
Afar is one of the nine ethnic divisions of Ethiopia, and is the homeland of the Afar people. Formerly known as Region 2, its current capital is Asayita; a new capital named Semera on the paved Awash - Asseb highway is under construction....
of Ethiopia in 2005, by a team led by Yohannes Haile-Selassie
Yohannes Haile-Selassie
Dr. Yohannes Haile-Selassie is an Ethiopian paleoanthropologist. An authority on pre-Homo sapiens hominids, he particularly focuses his attention on the Great Rift Valley and Middle Awash Valleys of East Africa....
, curator of physical anthropology at The Cleveland Museum of Natural History. Based on skeletal analysis, the fossil is believed to conclusively show that the species was fully bipedal.
At more than five feet in stature, Kadanuumuu is much taller than the famous "Lucy
Lucy (Australopithecus)
Lucy is the common name of AL 288-1, several hundred pieces of bone representing about 40% of the skeleton of an individual Australopithecus afarensis. The specimen was discovered in 1974 at Hadar in the Awash Valley of Ethiopia's Afar Depression. Lucy is estimated to have lived 3.2 million years...
" fossil of the same species discovered in the 1970s, and is approximately 400,000 years older. Among other characteristics, Kadanuumuu's scapula
Scapula
In anatomy, the scapula , omo, or shoulder blade, is the bone that connects the humerus with the clavicle ....
(part of the shoulder blade), the oldest discovered to date for a hominid, is comparable to that of modern humans, suggesting that the species was land rather than tree-based. Not all researchers agree with this conclusion.