Hominin footprints were found at a place called Laetoli in Tanzania, which is slightly older than the Australopithecus afarensis fossil skeleton called Lucy found at Hadar in Ethiopia. 'Lucy' is a collection of fossilised bones that once made up the skeleton of a hominid from the Australopithecus afarensis species. Hominid Versus Hominin ... An artist’s reconstruction of Australopithecus afarensis, a species that can be called a hominid or a hominin. This exceptional body size, which falls within the range of modern Homo sapiens maximum values, makes it the largest Australopithecus afarensis individual identified so far. What makes afarensis a hominin? afarensis is associated with the Laetoli Footprints, a 24-meter trackway of hominin fossil footprints preserved in volcanic ash discovered by Mary Leakey in Tanzania and dated to 3.5 mya to 3 mya. a. its efficient bipedalism b. its large brain c. its tool-making ability d. all of the above. e. its efficient bipedalism and large brain She lived in Ethiopia 3.2 million years ago. Hominin burial - We have learned a lot by trying to figure out what makes humans unique. These footprints indicate that Australopithecus afarensis was capable of walking upright. https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/australopithecus-afarensis-lucy-species.html The Maasai’s Interpretation . The large body size aspect is also reflected in the local community’s interpretations of the Laetoli hominin footprints. That makes it look more plausible that A. anamensis and A. afarensis could actually be branches from a common ancestor; in other words, they could be sisters, not mother and daughter. Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History The Smithsonian Institution's Human Origins Program Leslie Aiello quoted in Leakey and Lewin, Origins Reconsidered: In Search of What Makes Us Human, 196. Now, it's time to focus on what we have in common with the rest of life. M. Maurice Abitbol, “Lateral view of Australopithecus afarensis: primitive aspects of bipedal positional behavior in the earliest hominids,” Journal of Human Evolution, 28 (March, 1995): 211-29 (internal citations removed). Australopithecus Afarensis Physical Appearance •Brain is 1/3 the size of modern human’s, but larger than an ape’s brain. 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