Ardipithecus kadabba not ramidus?

[Daryl Habel]

All,

Perhaps related to the Reuters article posted by Jacques as the most recent topic on this board (hinting at more news from Ethiopia), is an article in this week's issue of the journal Science.  It appears from reading the abstract (below) that Haile-Selassie, Suwa, and White have determined that Ardipithicus ramidus kadabba no longer should be considered a sub-species of A. ramidus, but rather as a different species, Ardipithecus kadabba.

I hasten to add that I have not yet read the full article, as this issue of Science will not reach the shelf in my library until next week. But I'll definitely catch it then - the library is only one block from my new digs. Thanks go to Marcel Williams of the Yahoo paleoanthropology group for passing along notice of this article.

More later, after a read.

Dar

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Science, Vol 303, Issue 5663, 1503-1505, 5 March 2004
[DOI: 10.1126/science.1092978]

Late Miocene Teeth from Middle Awash, Ethiopia, and Early Hominid Dental Evolution

Yohannes Haile-Selassie,1* Gen Suwa,2 Tim D. White3

1 Cleveland Museum of Natural History, 1 Wade Oval Drive, Cleveland, OH 44106, USA.
2 The University Museum, The University of Tokyo, Bunkyo-Ku, Hongo, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan.
3 Department of Integrative Biology and Laboratory for Human Evolutionary Studies, Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: yhailese@cmnh.org

[abstract]

Late Miocene fossil hominid teeth recovered from Ethiopia's Middle Awash are assigned to Ardipithecus kadabba. Their primitive morphology and wear pattern demonstrate that A. kadabba is distinct from Ardipithecus ramidus. These fossils suggest that the last common ancestor of apes and humans had a functionally honing canine–third premolar complex. Comparison with teeth of Sahelanthropus and Orrorin, the two other named late Miocene hominid genera, implies that these putative taxa are very similar to A. kadabba. It is therefore premature to posit extensive late Miocene hominid diversity on the basis of currently available samples.

Copyright © 2004 by The American Association for the Advancement of Science. All rights reserved.

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[Daryl Habel]

Science, Vol 303, Issue 5663, 1503-1505, 5 March 2004
[DOI: 10.1126/science.1092978]

Late Miocene Teeth from Middle Awash, Ethiopia, and Early Hominid Dental Evolution

Yohannes Haile-Selassie,1* Gen Suwa,2 Tim D. White3

Additionally, here is an Associated Press story released today providing a few sketchy details with some interesting comment at the end by David Begun concerning the lumping of all early hominins (presumably Sahelanthropus, Orrorin) into the genus Ardipithecus.

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Ethiopia Fossil May Be From Early Primate    
 
 WASHINGTON (AP) - Six fossil teeth found in an Ethiopian desert and dated at about 5.2 million years may be from a previously unknown type of prehuman primate that was among the first to evolve from the common ancestor of humans and apes, a study suggests.

The teeth have distinctive features that are thought to have existed among the first hominids to emerge after the ape and human lineages evolved apart some six to eight million years ago, researchers say in the journal Science.

The researchers, led by Yahoos Haile-Selassie of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, say that the teeth come from a hominid known as Ardipithecus kadabba, one of the earliest known human ancestors.

A canine tooth in the assembly closely resembles teeth found in apes. The researchers say that the canine teeth were arranged so that they were sharpened against the lower premolars. This characteristic is common in both ancient and modern apes, the researchers say.

Haile-Selassie and his co-authors suggest that Ardipithecus kadabba and the fossils of two other prehuman primates of about the same age may all be members of variation of a single genus of hominids.

David R. Begun, an anthropologist at the University of Toronto, questions this interpretation in a commentary in Science. Begun said there are too many uncertainties for the three groups of prehuman primates for them to be placed in the same genus. He said the issue can only be resolved with the discovery of more fossils.
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The actual news story can be read at:

CLICK HERE FOR THE URL

Offhand, I'd guess Haile-Selassie's first name, Yohannes, was corrected to Yahoos by some automated spell-checker :)

Dar