ANCESTRIES OF THE MAN IN THE POSTAL STAMPS

Australopithecus afarensis
Johanson & Gray, 1974

CAMBODGE

2001

Mi 2255
(25.OCT.2001)

CUBA

1967

1997

2008

ETHIOPIA

1977

1986

Mi 1239
(4.JULY.1986)

SUISS

GENEVE

2001

(1988.AUG.20001)

PALAU

2000

20th Century Discoveries

Mi 1632/1651
(15-MAR-2000)

NORTH KOREIA

2006

Mi 5016

2008

UZBEKISTAN

Mi 445
(10.MAY.2002)

Australopithecus (Dart, 1925)

Australopithecus afarensis (Johanson, White, and Coppens, 1978)

Inhabiting eastern Africa between four and three million years ago, Australopithecus afarensis was a long-lived species that may have given rise to the several lineages of early human that appeared in both eastern and southern Africa between two and three million years ago.

For its antiquity, A. afarensis is one of the better known species of early human, with specimens collected from over 300 individuals.

It is a species that exhibits many cranial features which are reminiscent of our ape ancestry, such as a forward protruding (prognathic) face, (with the cheek teeth parallel in rows to each other similar to an ape) and not the parabolic shape of a modern human, and a small neurocranium (brain case) that averages only 430cc in size (not significantly larger than a modern chimpanzee).

Australopithecus afarensis

Is a hominid which lived between 3.9 to 3 million years ago belonging to the genus Australopithecus, of which the first skeleton was discovered on November 24, 1974 by Donald Johanson, Yves Coppens and Tim White in the Afar Depression of Ethiopia. They named it "Lucy" in reference to the famous Beatles song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" (LSD = toxid), which was played as they celebrated the find.

Until recently, the earliest known hominine for which sufficient diagnostic anatomical evidence was available was Australopithecus afarensis, fossils of which have been found in Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Kenya, and most of which date between 2.9 and 3.9 million years.

New finds of fossils as old or older than A. afarensis have been made in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Chad.

These speciments, which are sufficiently different from A. afarensis to have been named a new species, include the following: Ardipithecus ramidus from Ethiopia, dated at 4.4 million years; Australopithecus anamensis from Kenya, with an age range of 4.2 to 3.9 million years; and Australopithecus bahrelghazali from Chad, with an age estimate of 3 to 3.5 million years.

The first afarensis fossils were found in the mid 1974.

Their initial interpretation was controversial and remains so today, albeit to a lesser degree.

While many anthropologists accept that the multitude of fossil specimens that have been attributed to afarensis do indeed represent a single, sexually dimorphic species, others believe that the fossils belong to two, and perhaps more, species.

The Ethiopian hominine fossils were first found in the mid-1970s in the Hadar region of that country, by an international team led by Donald Johanson, of the Institute of Human Origins, Berkeley, and Maurice Taieb, a French paleontologist.

The most spectacular of these finds was the partial skeleton named "Lucy"; in addition, remains of 13 individuals were found at a single site and were subsequently dubbed the First Family.

It was clear from the start that some of the homninines were small while others were large.

Work continued in the region until the early 1980s, but was then suspended for almost a decade.

Australopithecus bahrelghazali

Michel Brunet, 1993

CHAD

1998

Mi 1837 w bl. 290

(11.DEC.1998)

A fossil hominin that was first discovered in 1993 by the paleontologist Michel Brunet in the Bahr el Ghazal valley near Koro Toro, in Chad, that Brunet named Abel.

It was dated using Berylium based Radiometric dating as living circa. 3.6 million years ago.

Sahelanthropus tchadensis

Michel Brunet, 2001

CHAD

2009

Mi 2510–2513 + 2514 & Block 406
(19.JULY.2005)

Was discovered by Michael Brunet's team in Chad in 2001 and described in Nature in 2002.

This species was named in July 2002 from fossils discovered in Chad in Central Africa (Brunet et al. 2002, Wood 2002).

It is the oldest known hominid or near-hominid species, dated at between 6 and 7 million years old. This species is known from a nearly complete cranium nicknamed Toumai, and a number of fragmentary lower jaws and teeth.

The skull has a very small brain size of approximately 350 cc.

It is not known whether it was bipedal. S. tchadensis has many primitive apelike features, such as the small brainsize, along with others, such as the brow ridges and small canine teeth, which are characteristic of later hominids.

Was discovered by Michael Brunet's team in Chad in 2001 and described in Nature in 2002. Some suggest that S. tchadensis existed near the time that hominids and apes separated on their evolutionary paths.

It could be that this specimen is a representative of an early hominid, predating A. afarensis aferensis by 3 to 4 million years; on the other hand, it might be an ancestor of the gorilla. The characteristics of the cranium are a mosaic of hominid-like (short face, the size and shape of the canines), and ape-like (very large browridges and small brain case) features.

Australanthropus olteniensis

ROMANIA
1990

Issue in Romania in 28.APR.1990

Tetoiu 28.APR.1990

1999

Issue in Roumania in 08.APR.1999

2000

Tetoiu 02.OCT.2000

Tetoiu 03.OCT.2000

2002

Tetoiu 05.MAR.2002

Archeological discoveries have show at Valcea country withing this human asazailor ancient times, "Australopithecus olteniensis.

Bugiulesti discoveries one of the oldest in the country.

Traces of habitation dating from the Paeleolithic era heve been removed from archeological research carried out revealed the following Dragoesti, Lotru Valley, Valley topology, Goranu and Ramnicu Valcea and the Cazanesti, Barsesti, Govora Sat, Voicesti, have been found painted ceramic dating from the neolithic age.

Aegyptopithecus zeuxis

PALAU

2000

Mi 1634
(15.MAR.2000)

The fossil cranium was found by Elwyn Simons, a primatologist at Duke University, and his colleagues.

Aegyptopithecus zeuxis is around 30 million years old and believed to be an old world monkey.

The completeness of the fossil skull allowed Simons and colleagues to take computerized x-rays and create a virtual model of the specimen’s tiny brain.

Based on analyses of previous fossil skulls collected at the dig site outside Cairo…, scientists had assumed the ancient monkey’s brain was larger and more advanced.

The new fossil indicates Aegyptopithecus had a relatively primitive brain compared to its descendants.

Driopithecus (Proconsul) africanus

EAST AFRICA

Dryopithecus (Proconsul) africanus

AETHIOPIA

Driopithecus (Proconsul) africanus

CUBA

Driopithecus (Proconsul) africanus

GUYANA

Gigantopithecus spp.

NIGER

Proconsul africanus

UZBEKISTAN

Early primate fossils:

Genus Aegyptopithecus
Genus Proconsul
Proconsul africanus
Genus Oreopithecus
Genus Dryopithecus
Genus Sivapithecus
Sivapithecus ramapithecus
Sivapithecus kenyapithecus
Sivapithecus ouranopithecus
Genus Gigantopithecus

Genus of extinct ape that is representative of early members of the lineage that includes humans and other apes.

Although Dryopithecus has been known by a variety of names based upon fragmentary material found over a widespread area including Europe, Africa, and Asia, it appears probable that only a single genus is represented.

Dryopithecus is found as fossils in Miocene and Pliocene deposits (23 to 2.6 million years old) and apparently originated in Africa.

Several distinct forms of Dryopithecus are known, including small, medium, and large, gorilla-sized animals.