Late Miocene Teeth from Middle Awash, Ethiopia, and Early Hominid Dental Evolution

2004/03/04 by Yohannes Haile‐Selassie, Gen Suwa, Tim D. White · 14 citations
Psychology · Social Sciences · Earth and Planetary Sciences · #Primate Behavior and Ecology #Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology #Evolution and Paleontology Studies

paper · doi:10.1126/science.1092978

openalex publication_date 2004/03/04 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31

Abstract

Late Miocene fossil hominid teeth recovered from Ethiopia's Middle Awash are assigned to Ardipithecus kadabba. Their primitive morphology and wear pattern demonstrate that A. kadabba is distinct from Ardipithecus ramidus. These fossils suggest that the last common ancestor of apes and humans had a functionally honing canine-third premolar complex. Comparison with teeth of Sahelanthropus and Orrorin, the two other named late Miocene hominid genera, implies that these putative taxa are very similar to A. kadabba. It is therefore premature to posit extensive late Miocene hominid diversity on the basis of currently available samples.

Citations

• Climbing to the top: A personal memoir ofAustralopithecus afarensis
• Australopithecus ramidus, a new species of early hominid from Aramis, Ethiopia

Cited by

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• Subocclusal dental morphology of sahelanthropus tchadensis and the evolution of teeth in hominins
• Mitochondrial pseudogenes suggest repeated inter-species hybridization among direct human ancestors
• Potential hominin affinities of Graecopithecus from the Late Miocene of Europe
• From Trees to the Ground: The Significance ofAustralopithecus anamensisin Human Evolution
• Analyzing Hominin Phylogeny: Cladistic Approach
• Unresolved molecular phylogenies of gibbons and siamangs (Family: Hylobatidae) based on mitochondrial, Y-linked, and X-linked loci indicate a rapid Miocene radiation or sudden vicariance event
• 6 The Earliest Putative Hominids
• Phylogeny of early Australopithecus : new fossil evidence from the Woranso-Mille (central Afar, Ethiopia)
• Environmental hypotheses of Pliocene human evolution
• Relevance of the eastern African coastal forest for early hominin biogeography
• New Pliocene hominid fossils from Baringo County, Kenya
• Ardipithecus [wikipedia]
• Ardipithecus ramidus [wikipedia]