Late Miocene hominin teeth from the Gona Paleoanthropological Research Project area, Afar, Ethiopia

Scott W Simpson; Lynnette Kleinsasser; Jay Quade; Naomi E Levin; William C McIntosh; Nelia Dunbar; Sileshi Semaw; Michael J Rogers

doi:10.1016/j.jhevol.2014.07.004

Late Miocene hominin teeth from the Gona Paleoanthropological Research Project area, Afar, Ethiopia

J Hum Evol. 2015 Apr:81:68-82. doi: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2014.07.004. Epub 2015 Mar 18.

Authors

Scott W Simpson¹, Lynnette Kleinsasser², Jay Quade³, Naomi E Levin⁴, William C McIntosh⁵, Nelia Dunbar⁶, Sileshi Semaw⁷, Michael J Rogers⁸

Affiliations

¹ Department of Anatomy, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Cleveland, OH 44106-4930, USA; Institute for the Science of Origins, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH 44106, USA; Laboratory of Physical Anthropology, Cleveland Museum of Natural History, Cleveland, OH 44106, USA. Electronic address: sws3@cwru.edu.
² Department of Geosciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA; Barrick Cortez, HC 66 Box 1250, Crescent Valley, NV 89821 USA. Electronic address: lkleinsasser@barrick.com.
³ Department of Geosciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA. Electronic address: quadej@email.arizona.edu.
⁴ Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA. Electronic address: nlevin3@jhu.edu.
⁵ New Mexico Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources & Department of Environmental Science, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, Socorro, NM 87801, USA. Electronic address: mcintosh@nmt.edu.
⁶ Department of Environmental Science, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, Socorro, NM 87801, USA. Electronic address: nelia@nmt.edu.
⁷ Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana (CENIEH), Paseo Sierro de Atapuerca 3, Burgos 09002, Spain; The Stone Age Institute, 1392 West Dittemore Road, Gosport, IN 47433, USA; CRAFT, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA. Electronic address: Sileshi.semaw@cenieh.es.
⁸ Department of Anthropology, Southern Connecticut State University, New Haven, CT 06515, USA. Electronic address: rogersm1@southernct.edu.

PMID: 25795338
DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2014.07.004

Abstract

Since 2000, significant collections of Latest Miocene hominin fossils have been recovered from Chad, Kenya, and Ethiopia. These fossils have provided a better understanding of earliest hominin biology and context. Here, we describe five hominin teeth from two periods (ca. 5.4 Million-years-ago and ca. 6.3 Ma) that were recovered from the Adu-Asa Formation in the Gona Paleoanthropological Research Project area in the Afar, Ethiopia that we assign to either Hominina, gen. et sp. indet. or Ardipithecus kadabba. These specimens are compared with extant African ape and other Latest Miocene and Early Pliocene hominin teeth. The derived morphology of the large, non-sectorial maxillary canine and mandibular third premolar links them with later hominins and they are phenetically distinguishable and thus phyletically distinct from extant apes.

Keywords: Ardipithecus kadabba; Ardipithecus ramidus; Hominina; Late Miocene; Orrorin; Western Ethiopian Escarpment.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

Animals
Biological Evolution
Ethiopia
Fossils / anatomy & histology*
Hominidae / anatomy & histology*
Tooth / anatomy & histology*