ABSTRACT. The taxon Praeanthropus africanus (WEINERT, 1950), represented by the Garusi maxilla, is valid and reinstated. The morphological pattern of the Garusi maxilla is not that of a primitive hominid, but of a relatively generalized pongid. Since the apelike lectotype L.H.-4 and paralectotype A.L.200-1a of Australopithecus afarensis JOHANSON et al., 1978 are conspecific with P. afrieanus, and originate from the same formation, they are reassigned to Praeanthropus africanus.
ABSTRACT. A fossil skull, Stw 53, from the Plio/Pleistocene of Sterkfontein, in South Africa, has been referred to Homo habilis LEAKEY, NAPIER, and TOBIAS, 1964. Reappraisal of its putative hominine affinity reveals a closer resemblance to Australopithecus africanus DART, 1925. The skull, as reconstructed, is too small for H. habilis; with no indication of brain expansion over A. africanus; has a facial angle outside the hominine range, but identical with that of A. africanus; and whose teeth are not elongated but display buccolingual expansion. Although it was found in the same strata (Member 5) as stone tools, there is no causal connection. It has been dated faunistically at 2-1.5 my BP, but due to an unconformity it is suggested that it could be older.
ABSTRACT. The subspecies of Australopithecus africanus DART, 1925 have been revised in a morphological and statistical analysis. Four subspecific names were previously proposed, but only one was found to be valid. The subspecies A. africanus transvaalensis (BROOM, 1936), from the Plio/Pleistocene of South Africa, cannot be sustained due to an insufficient sample, and is combined with the nominate race, A. a. africanus. The type of A. africanus afarensis TOBIAS, 1980 is a mistake in identification and not A. africanus, but a pongid. The population of A. africanus from the late Pliocene of Ethiopia does indeed represent a relatively small-toothed geographical race for which the name A.africanus aethiopicus was conditionally proposed; and the lectotype for it, A.L. 288-1, is not A. africanus, but the type of Homo antiquus FERGtrSON, 1984. The trinominal aethiopicus is thus unavailable for the Ethiopian race, which is redescribed as a new subspecies, A. africanus miodentatus n. ssp., and the mandible A.L. 266-1 is designated as the holotype.
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