Australopithecus anamensis

An extinct early hominin species from East Africa, known from fossils dating to about 4.2–3.8 million years ago. Its remains combine adaptations for walking upright with features suited to climbing.

Kanapoi: A fossil-bearing site in Kenya’s Turkana Basin, with deposits dating to the early Pliocene. Fossils from Kanapoi include some of the earliest known remains assigned to this species.
Bipedalism: Habitual locomotion on two legs, a defining feature of the human lineage. The species’ knee and ankle fossils provide evidence for upright walking.
Pliocene: The geological epoch spanning about 5.33 to 2.58 million years ago. The species lived during the Pliocene, when several early hominins appeared in Africa.
Hominin Phylogeny: The evolutionary relationships among humans and extinct species more closely related to humans than to chimpanzees. Its position relative to later australopiths remains debated because the fossil record is incomplete.
Allia Bay: A fossil locality on the eastern shore of Lake Turkana in Kenya. Its hominin fossils helped establish the species’ presence around Lake Turkana.
Tibial Plateau: The upper surface of the tibia that forms part of the knee joint. Its shape in fossils assigned to this species has been used to assess weight-bearing during bipedal walking.
East African Rift: A system of geological valleys and basins extending through eastern Africa. Rift basins exposed and preserved many of the fossils used to study the species.
Species Delimitation: The process of deciding where one species ends and another begins. The boundaries between this species and related early hominins depend on interpreting fragmentary fossils.
Musero: A fossil site in Kenya’s Turkana Basin that preserves early Pliocene hominin remains. A jaw discovered at Musero became part of the evidence for the species’ anatomy.
Ankle Joint: The articulation between the lower leg and foot that supports and guides movement. Ankle bones attributed to this species help reconstruct how its foot bore weight.

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