Crossword Puzzle for Early Hominin Evolution
Topic 1:  Discovery of Early Hominins

Across

2. A small eroded valley in Tanzania where Louis and Mary Leakey found the first known East African early hominin in 1959.
5. The species of the very early australopithecine found by Donald Johanson in 1974 at the Hadar site in the Afar Desert region of Northern Ethiopia. It was a 40% complete skeleton of an adult female whom they named Lucy. She lived 3.2-3.18 million years ago.
6. The biological tribe that includes all australopithecines and humans. These are all human-like, bipedal animals.
8. The common name for members of the biological tribe Hominini.
10. The medical doctor and enthusiastic paleontologist from Scotland who found the first known adult Australopithecus africanus while excavating in Sterkfontein cave in 1936. In 1938, he discovered other early hominins in Kromdraai cave. Some of these fossils were larger boned and more muscular with powerful jaws. He named them Paranthropus robustus.
13. A limestone cave in South Africa where, in 1924, the first known australopithecine discovery was made.
14. The name of a 2.5 million year old australopithecine species found in Northern Ethiopia by Berhana Asfaw and Tim White in 1996. Animal bones with cut marks made with stone tools were found with it. The name means "surprise" in a local Ethiopian language.
15. A ridge of bone projecting vertically, from front to back, along the top midline of the skull. It serves as a muscle attachment area for the muscles that extend up both sides of the head from the jaw. The presence of this ridge of bone indicates that there are exceptionally strong jaw muscles.
16. The name of the genus that may have been the immediate ancestor of the australopithecines. The fossils for which this species was named was found in Northern Ethiopia by Tim White and his colleagues in the 1990’s. They date to about 4.4 million years ago and may represent the first stage in the evolution of bipedalism.

Down

1. The name of the earliest known robust australopithecine species. The fossil skull for which this species was named was found in 1985 on the western side of Lake Turkana in northern Kenya. It is a nearly complete robust skull with an unusually large sagittal crest. Manganese in the soil deposit where it was located stained it black. As a result, this unusual fossil has become known as the "black skull."
3. The English scientist who speculated in an 1871 publication that fossils of the earliest humans and their primate ancestors ultimately would be found somewhere in Africa.
4. The genus name of an early hominid that literally means “southern ape.”
7. The name of the earliest known australopithecine species. The fossil for which this species was named was found In 1995 by Meave Leakey southwest of Lake Turkana. The species was named after the word for "lake" in the Turkana language.
9. The unusual kind of evidence of early hominids found at the Laetoli site about 30 miles south of Olduvai Gorge in Northern Tanzania. It was found in 1978 by Mary Leakey and Tim White.
11. The Australian anatomy professor at the University of Witerwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, who obtained a fossil skull of a child that had been blasted out of a nearby limestone quarry. In 1925 he classified it as Australopithecus africanus.
12. The species of the super robust australopithecine found in 1959 at Olduvai Gorge by Louis and Mary Leakey. They originally classified this fossil into a new genus, Zinjanthropus (East African man), but later agreed that it belonged to an already known genus of early hominims (Australopithecus).


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