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This volume describes a 3.6 million-years-old partial skeleton of
Australopithecus afarensis from the Woranso-Mille, central Afar,
Ethiopia. This specimen is the first adult partial skeleton to be
recovered since Lucy's (A.L. 288-1) discovery in 1974. It is older
than Lucy by 400,000 years and sheds light on the paleobiology of
early Australopithecus afarensis, particularly the morphology of
the shoulder girdle and thoracic shape, which are thus far poorly
understood and actively debated. The fauna associated with the
partial skeleton tells us enormously about Au. afarensis
paleoecology and give us another piece of the puzzle regarding
habitat availability and use for Au. afarensis outside the Hadar
region where it has been well-known for the last four decades.
"The late F. Clark Howell had a vision of paleoanthropology as a
fully integrated set of many scientific disciplines. This
meticulously documented work is the first in a series that fulfills
his vision. It is a magisterial synthesis of important early
hominid fossils and their contemporaneous mammals placed in
regionally dated stratigraphic sequences and reconstructed
paleoenvironments. It is enhanced by images of sites and moments of
discovery that are usually left to popular articles and that will
give the reader a glimpse of the rigors of field work in a remote
region of Africa."--Alan Walker, Pennsylvania State University
"This carefully planned and creatively crafted book is a record of
a previously little-known niche of Africa's past. It recounts the
tale of more than three thousand fossils, including twenty hominid
specimens representing the new ancestral species Ardipithecus
kadabba and their location in space, time and environment. Together
they paint a picture of Africa in the late Miocene, of five to six
million years ago. It was a part of northeast Africa, the Middle
Awash of Ethiopia, at a time when it was rent by volcanoes and
rifting. From this tectonically ravaged past, one marvels at such
beauteous byproducts as this book reveals. To do justice to
Ethiopia's surprises needs an exceptional book. This volume is
worthy of the challenge: it is a model of its kind and will be hard
to surpass. Happily, this is the first great volume on such matters
to be edited by two sons of Africa, Doctors Haile-Selassie and
WoldeGabriel, with a cast of twenty-five contributors from eight
countries."--Phillip V. Tobias, F.R.S., For.M.NAS, University of
the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
"Here we have the life and times of Ardipithecus kadabba, the
intriguing hominin lying near the divergence of the human lineage
from that of the African Great Apes. Meticulously put together and
rigorously documented, this book illustrates the intrinsic value of
the best monographic publications of its kind. It provides rich,
detailed information concerning A. kadabba, the other creatures
that populated the eastern African landscape in the late Miocene,
and their geological and paleoenvironmental surroundings.
Synthesizing these data into an illuminating picture of one of our
very earliest plausible ancestors, situated in its temporal and
environmental context, the book is valuable not just for
paleoanthropologists, but for all biologists interested in the
ancient fauna of this great region of the world, its history and
paleobiogeography."--Andrew Hill, Yale University
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