| DISPLAY GUIDE FOR THE PALEONTOLOGY EXHIBITION Laetoli foot prints 3,500,000 years ago, our very remote ancient ancestors walked through a landscape very like that which we see today. On one particular day the volcano Sadiman puffed out a lot of gray ash, which blanketed part of plains. A rain shower dampened and settled the ashes, so that the local animals left their crisp, clear tracks when they walked Through this desolated grey landscape, traveled three hominids walking on two legs. A large, medium sized and small individual walked together. A day or two letter, a fresh ash fall buried the tracks, until they were excavated in 1978. It is tempting to wonder why these ape-like small brained creatures (400 cc) walked upright Ramapithecine Ramapithcines are an extinct group of apes that lived in the Miocene period, from 14 to 8 million years ago. The remain have been found in various part of the world including East Africa, Asia and Europe. In order to find out how closely the ramapithecines are related to us, their jaws have been compared with our own, and with those of our closest relatives, the chimpanzee and gorillas. The shape of their jaw suggests that, like us, the ramapithecus had short muzzles (flat face) and their teeth seem more like ours too. On this evidence it may be argued that the ramapithecines are probably more closely related to us than chimpanzee and gorilla. The australopithecine Both types of australopithecine had short muzzles, and their teeth have certain characteristics in common with our own. All the australopithecine seems to have walked upright on two legs as we do. | |
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