Afarensis is a 3.5-2.8 million year old hominin from the Kada Hadar member of the Hadar formation in the Middle Awash, Ethiopia. He is approximately 41 inches tall, weighs approximately 60 pounds and has a cranial capacity of a whopping 410 cc (approximately). Afarensis is currently considered to be transitional between apes and humans and displays some traits of both. Since he spends a lot of time on the couch watching monster movies, some observers question whether he is an obligate biped (although no one has observed him climbing a tree). He also has a blog called Transitions:The Evolution of Life His previous blog can be found here.
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"Loyalty to petrified opinion never broke a chain or freed a human soul..." Mark Twain
"Ideology is a poor substitute for rational thought..." Afarensis
"It isn't faith that makes good science...it's curiosity" Prof. Jacob Barnhardt, The Day the Earth Stood Still
"This man wishes to be accorded the same privilege as a sponge. He wishes to think!" Clarence Darrow, Inherit the Wind
"...I become fearful when I see people substituting fear for reason..." Klaatu, The Day the Earth Stood Still
"I want you to grab life by its little bunny ears and get in its face..." The Simpsons
"This is between me and the vegetable..." Seymour Krelborn, The Little Shop of Horrors
"There are bad laws and cruel laws and the people who enforce them are both bad and cruel..." Thea, Isle of the Dead
"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." Jean- Luc Picard, Star Trek: The Next Generation
"But the limit of tolerance for these human foibles is obtained when the proponent of a questionable scientific doctrine endeavors to maintain it against all possible odds by misrepresentation, misinformation and suppression of contradictory data, and by insinuating unfairness in opponents of his views." Franz Weidenreich, Morphology of Solo Man
"Man stands alone in the universe, a unique product of a long, unconcious, impersonal material process with unique understanding and potentialities. These he owes to no one but himself, and it is to himself that he is responsible. He is not the creature of uncontrollable and undeterminable forces, but his own master. He can and must decide and manage his own destiny." George Gaylord Simpson, Life of the Past
Yeah he's the Dick to the Dawk to the phd,
he's smarter than you he's got a science degree!
Yeah he's the Dick to the Dawk to the phd,
he's smarter than you he's got a science degree! Unknown
Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And when you look into the abyss, the abyss also looks into you. Frederich Nietzsche
Order: Primates Suborder: Haplorrhini Family: Atelidae Subfamily: Atelinae Genus: Ateles Species: Ateles paniscus Common Name: Black spider monkey Currently, Ateles is composed of six-seven allopatric species. The black spider monkey lives in Central and South America. They are large monkeys,...
Normally, at this point I would give the classification of the primate, but in this case that is not really possible as Afropithecus turkanensis is incertae sedis. This simply means that the exact relationship of Afropithecus has not been worked...
Order: Primates Suborder: Strepsirrhini Family: Lemuridae Genus: Hapalemur Species: Hapalemur griseus Common: Gentle Bamboo Lemur According to Walker's Primates of the World there are three species in the genus Hapalemur, however the ADW lists four....
Order: Primates Suborder: Haplorrhini Family: Cercopithecidae Subfamily: Cercopithecinae Genus: Cercopithecus Species: Cercopithecus neglectus Common Name: De Brazza's Monkey The De Brazza's monkey lives Africa, mainly in an area bounded by southern Ethiopia, Cameroon and northern Angola. They reside in forest,...
Order: Primates Family: Pitheciidae Subfamily: Callicebinae Tribe: Xenotrichini Genus: Antillothrix Species: Antillothrix bernensis Antillothrix bernensis is known only from skeletal remains found at a few sites in the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Radiocarbon dates range from 3,850-9,850 years before present....
Order: Primates Family: Pitheciidae Subfamily: Callicebinae Tribe: Xenotrichini Genus: Paralouatta Species: Paralouatta varonai Paralouatta varonai is another subfossil species, this time found in Cuba. Specimens include a nearly complete skull, a portion of a mandible, and various post-cranial material....
Order: Primates Family: Pitheciidae Subfamily: Callicebinae Tribe: Xenotrichini Genus: Xenothrix Species: Xenothrix mcgregori Xenothrix mcgregori is a subfossil species discovered in Jamaica in 1919, although the species description was not completed until 1952. The find, apparently, consisted of a small...
Order: Primates Suborder Anthropoidea Infraorder Catarrhini Superfamily Hominoidea Genus: Nakalipithecus Species: Nakalipithecus nakayamai It's been awhile since I have used a fossil primate in this series, so "ripped straight from the headlines" (as they say in the Law and Order...
Order: Primates Suborder: Strepsirrhini Family: Lepilemuridae Genus: Lepilemur Species: Lepilemur mustelinus Common Name: Weasel or Sportive Lemur The genus Lepilemur contains anywhere from one to eight species - depending on who you talk to. Sportive lemurs live in deciduous forests...
Order: Primates Suborder: Strepsirrhini Family: Lorisidae Genus: Nycticebus Species: Nycticebus coucang Common Name: Slow Loris Nycticebus is a genus containing two allopatric species (Nycticebus coucang and Nycticebus pygmaeus). The slow loris is native to parts of Bangladesh, Assam, Burma, Vietnam,...
Order: Primates Suborder: Haplorrhini Family: Cercopithecidae Subfamily: Colobinae Genus: Semnopithecus (formerly Presbytis) Species: Semnopithecus entellus Common Name: Hanuman Langur The Hanuman langer is spread widely throughout southern Tibet and Nepal, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. They are medium sized...
Order: Primates Suborder: Strepsirrhini Family: Lemuridae Genus: Lemur Species: Lemur catta Common name: Ring-Tailed Lemurs I must confess that I have a fondness for the lemurs - especially the ring-tailed lemurs....
Order: Primates Suborder: Haplorrhini Family: Cercopithecidae Subfamily: Cercopithecinae Genus: Theropithecus Species: Theropithecus gelada Theropithecus was a widespread and diverse genus during the Pliocene and early Pleistocene. Various species occupied most of Africa and parts of southwestern Asia. Today only a...
Order: Primates Suborder: Haplorrhini Family: Cercopithecidae Subfamily: Colobinae Genus: Presbytis Species: Presbytis melalophos Common: Mitred Leaf Monkey The mitred leaf monkey resides in the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, and western Borneo. They are smallish colobines, weighing about 13 pounds, on average....
I'll have an actual primate up later today or tomorrow. In the meantime consider the following. There are approximately 252 extant species of primates distributed in 61 genera. There are also over 200 known fossil genera comprising over 400 species....
Afarensis is a 3.5-2.8 million year old hominin from the Kada Hadar member of the Hadar formation in the Middle Awash, Ethiopia. He is approximately 41 inches tall, weighs approximately 60 pounds and has a cranial capacity of a whopping 410 cc (approximately). Afarensis is currently considered to be transitional between apes and humans and displays some traits of both. Since he spends a lot of time on the couch watching monster movies, some observers question whether he is an obligate biped (although no one has observed him climbing a tree). He also has a blog called Transitions:The Evolution of Life His previous blog can be found here. 
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