In Tanzania found unusually large Australopithecus

Scientists have found in Tanzania traces of unusually large Australopithecus, whose height is 1.65 meters and weight – about 50 pounds – was much higher than that of other obtyanula of the time, making it a kind of giant.

It is surprising that all these footprints were left by the same group of people that were going in the same direction with the same speed. Where they were going, of course, we don’t know. They probably just went through the neighborhood, as did all the other animals, whose traces are imprinted in volcanic sediments in Letoli — said Marco Cherine from the University of Perugia (Italy).

The unusually large footprints of Australopithecus, of which his contemporaries could be considered a giant, was found Harinam and his colleagues in the town Laetoli in Tanzania, near the place where the famous British woman paleontologist MeV Leakey found the first known fossilized footprints of humans from the shores of lake Turkana.

These traces, whose age was 3.7 million years that today I believe paleontologists, left avarskii the Australopithecines, first convinced the paleontologists that our ancestors already moved to bipedalism, despite the fact that they had a small brain and a relatively modest body size.

It tells Cherine, these traces have reached our days due to the fact that at that time in East Africa has been a catastrophe – the eruption of the volcano Sadiman. It covered the surrounding area of the future lake Turkana blanket from the ashes of a thickness of several tens of centimeters. Soft ash, preserved footprints of our ancestors, has been cemented by rain and then covered with a new layer of volcanic emissions, allowing these tracks to live up to our days.

It turned out that this Quartet of Australopithecus, open Faces, were not the only group of hominids, the closest relatives and ancestors of humans and chimpanzees, which have left their traces in the ashes. New tracks, according to scientists, was found virtually by accident, during the construction of the Museum near the shores of lake Turkana right over the prints found Mew Faces.

Approximately 150 metres North of the famous marks Cherine and his colleagues have discovered a new path of obtyanula, which this time remained unusually large footprints of Australopithecus one male and his smaller companion, moving down the slopes of the volcano.

Much to the surprise of Cerina, the length of the feet from a larger Australopithecus was equal to or even greater than himself – more than 27 inches. If the ratio of mass and increase the owner of these tracks was the same as avarskikh Australopithecus, he has actually achieved the modern dimensions of people – his height was 165 cm and weight about 50 pounds.

Growth and many other avarskikh Australopithecus was generally much smaller, what did the owner of these tracks a real giant from their point of view.

The discovery, according to the paleontologist, suggests that mass and growth of our ancestors could vary no less than in modern humans. In addition, large differences in size between the alleged females and males avarskikh of the Australopithecines, indicated that the relationship between the sexes could significantly change over the next 3.7 million years of evolution, moving from the dominance of males in groups in the direction of greater gender equality.

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