ExtinctZoo - The Forefathers Of Humanity

Episode Date: February 27, 2024

This is the story of the last non-human ancestors of humanity

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and the signature Southern Country Rock of Eric Church on July 19th. Tickets on sale now at Yamavat Theater.com, only at Yamava Resort and Casino, celebrating its 40th anniversary. You in? Must be 21 to enter. Over four million years ago, the Earth was experiencing the first days of the Pliocene epoch. During this time, the world had begun to undergo a change in temperature and aridity, which created many changes throughout the globe. And on the plains of Africa, a new creature was abound in this strange, changing new world. It was shockingly somewhat human in appearance, it much smaller in stature and unassuming.

Although in more ways than one, it was actually an extremely important animal, and for us, perhaps the most important. And of course, it had no knowledge that one day its legacy would play a large role in our understanding of ourselves. This was the Australopithecus. The first time scientists ever became aware of this predecessor of ours was in 1924, when the skull of an infant was found within a South African lime quarry. The specimen, now referred to as the Tong Child, was estimated to have been between 3 and 4 years old when it died some 2.8 million years ago. It was rapidly recognized by anthropologist Raymond Dart as being a new kind of animal and primate, one that he believed may even be an early human ancestor due to multiple humanoid features it possessed. And he quickly named it Australopithecus Afrikanus, meaning,

the southern ape of Africa. Soon after, even more specimens belonging to this new creature were found. But these new remains, along with a tong child, were met with a lot of backlash from the scientific community, as many in those days were against the idea of the Australopithecus being anything but an ape. Eventually, though, through more complete remains and increased studies into the Australopithecus, it was agreed upon that it wasn't just an ape, but an early hominin that may have descended from artepithecus rammatis and shared several traits with both apes and modern humans.

Yet these differences, notably when it came to anatomy, were big enough for it not to be considered a species of homo, rather a separate genus. Although, interestingly enough, some Australopithecus were more human than others. This stems from there being numerous species of Australopithecus, some of which, like the gari, had more human-like features than others like the animensis. However, at one point in time, the idea that it was indeed a new species of Homo was in fact considered. This debate stemmed from a monumental discovery made in Tanzania back in 1935, that consisted of two trails of footprints. These trails were confirmed as being made by Australopithecus, thanks to foot reconstructions and showed that this primate was bipedal in life. And because the Australopithecus was fully bipedal, certain anthropologists argued that it must be a species of homo.

As to them, fully-fledged bipedalism is a hallmark of humanness, and therefore all fully bipedal apes should be classified as such. However, the exclusion of Australopithecus from the homogenous remains the prevalent stance, mainly due to the anatomical differences between the two, with one of the more important ones being brain size. Skoll scans showed that the brains of most Australopithecus species were about 65% smaller than those of modern humans, with some slight variance as early Australopithecus had smaller brains than later ones. This smaller brain size, coupled with its clear bipedalism,

was actually a major deal to scientists. As for a long time, there had been a major school of thought, which assumed that the development of large brains had to happen before bipedalism. And thus, the Australopithecus's ability to walk upright, despite having a smaller brain absolutely uprooted this conjecture. And not only did it stump many with its small brain and walking capabilities, but also with its timing, as the Tanzanian trackways remain the oldest evidence of clear fundamental bipedalism in hominids,

being dated to 3.7 million years ago. Furthermore, since the oldest species, the animensis is roughly 4.2 million years old, it means that these were the first hominids to become fully, fundamentally, bipedal. This being said, there is evidence of other older hominids also walking upright, as shown by the 7 million-year-old, Sahilanthropis and the 5.7 million-year-old, artepithecus. Yet research on both of these primates indicate that their legs, hands, and spines were designed for only short amounts of bipedalism, with a vast majority of their days being spent

in the trees. And this brings up another monumental achievement of the Australopithecus. As it being primarily bipedal indicates that it was an adept terrestrial animal, making it the first known great ape and ancestral human to live on the ground. This shift from being arboreal, to terrestrial was a major change, and the Australopithecus developed several traits that helped it adjust. One of these changes, evidenced by the famous specimen Lucy, was its legs, which became longer, stronger, and more human-like,

being almost identical in function to our own. Meanwhile, its feet underwent changes too, also becoming more similar to the feet of humans, with the opposable toe seen in other great apes disappearing in adults. Additionally, the pelvis became broader and shorter to accommodate internal organs in an upright position, and it gained a curved spine, which aided in weight distribution by offsetting the weight of gravity. These new traits and features helped answer the question of how the Australopithecus adjusted

to walking around. But it didn't answer the question of why it left the safety of trees in the first place. This is a mystery that remains unanswered. but certain ideas have been presented. The leading one being that a change in climate provoked them to descend from trees. During the time of the Australopithecus, Africa saw increased cooling and more defined seasons, which resulted in the once expansive forests and woodlands being replaced by grasslands and savannas. These open habitats, which lack trees, meant that living on the ground gave Australopithecus,

access to more resources, and the ability to traverse large. larger amounts of terrain. However, despite these adaptations, the Australopithecus quickly found out that living on the ground was by no means easy, and often led to short, unfortunate lives, with the average lifespan being estimated at less than 20 years old. One reason why life was extremely harsh for these primates was their fragile build and small sizes, with adults measuring no more than 1.4 meters or 4 foot 7 inches in height. females sometimes being 50% smaller than males.

This small stature, along with having no strong physical defenses, led to easy predation by a wide range of predators that it lived alongside, which included hyenas, African wild dogs, panthera, cheetahs, meganterian, dinofelis, homotherium, mac irides, crocodiles, and predatory birds. Some of these carnivores are even known to have preyed on our ancestors through direct evidence, with one case coming from the Tong child itself, who possessed a damaged skull and eye sockets, both of which have been gouged and scratched by the talons of a large eagle. Crocodiles and big cats have also shown evidence of regularly hunting, Australopithecus through bite marks and bone assemblages, respectively.

Clearly, life was very dangerous back then. However, the the Australopithecus still managed to get by, and one way they did so was actually through trees. Because despite being terrestrial, the Australopithecus were still adept climbers, thanks to their curved hands and mobile toes, which let them climb trees when predators were nearby. Infants in particular seem to have utilized this defensive strategy,

as recovered feet bones from a specimen dubbed Lucy's baby, showed that juveniles retained opposable toes, that allowed them to easily scale trees for some time, until they would lose this ability as they aged and matured, making them more vulnerable in some ways. Yet the Australopithecus were by no means pushovers as adults, and were still highly successful despite their hurdles. And one way they achieved this success

was through their unique dentition, that allowed them to eat a diverse range of food. Specifically, they had thickened enamels and expanded molars, which allowed allowed them to consume floor-bound foods such as nuts, tubers, and tough grains, that were peppered with gritty dirt and other small particles, which would erode the teeth of most other animals. Additionally, they possessed enlarged incisors,

which were specialized for scavenging meat and would have been used to remove flesh off a carcass in a tearing fashion. Although most studies indicate a predominantly herbivorous diet, which along with ground-bound food included fruits, vegetables, and vegetables, and cereal grains. On top of it having highly specialized teeth, the Australopithecus had another much more rare trait to help it, one that I actually had to create, so to speak. This was technology.

In 2011, a site named Lomequy was discovered in Kenya, where over 150 artifacts consisting of stone cores, flakes, and anvils were located. These artifacts are currently the oldest known stone tools being dated to 3.3 million years ago, and most believe that Australopithecus were responsible for the creation of them. However, it may have been the Kenyanthropis instead who was responsible. Either way, other strong evidence exists that indicate Australopithecus habitually created stone tools. Demonstrated by one site in Ethiopia where multiple

Australopithecus aphyrinsus specimens were found next to various large mammal bones that had clear signs of being processed and cut with stone tools. This showed these hominants likely use their tools to butcher animals, allowing them to easily get meat and bone marrow within bones. Such an advantage would have greatly helped the Australopithecus survive, succeed, and spread throughout the lands, which it did end up doing, with all species encompassing large portions of Western and Southern Africa, as well as some parts of Central and Northern Africa. Additionally, the success that its technology, along with its bipedalism and other traits allowed for, is reflected by its impressive time range, as it is one of the longest surviving hominids,

existing for over 2.3 million years. With such a long existence, the Australopithecus lived alongside numerous animals, which along with the previously mentioned predators included the black-footed cat, Cape Fox, mongooses, guenet, horses, pigs, Clipspringer, Antelope, Hairs, Impala's, elephants, giraffes, forest-dwelling monkeys, rhinoceros, civetherium, hippos, turtles, tortoises, birds and snakes, among others. In some cases, it even lived with other Australopithecus, as certain species are known to have coexisted, such as the aphrensus and animensis, who lived side by side for at least 100,000 years. Separately, there is evidence which also suggest it lived with two other hominids,

paranthropis, and the earliest known Homo erectus, as all three lived in the same place at the same time, though interactions amongst them are not known. Unfortunately, the aid of technology and bipedalism would not help the Australopithecus last, with the youngest known species, Australopithecus, Sidibe, becoming pseudo-extinct some 1.98 million years ago during the early Pleistocene, meaning all its members went extinct, but some members of a daughter species survived. Many conversations, debates, and arguments regarding the cause of its disappearance, have arisen during the years, ranging from interbreeding to climate change

and competition with other hominins. But for now, a clear answer does not exist. On top of this, there's also great interest regarding if the Australopithecus is our direct ancestor. Many think this is extremely likely. And for a long time, it was thought that the Afarensis species was who we descended from. But now this is a hotly argued topic,

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