Kadanuumuu ("Big Man" in the Afar language) is the nickname of KSD-VP-1/1. It is a 3.58-million-year-old partial Australopithecus afarensis fossil discovered in the Afar Region of Ethiopia in 2005, by a team led by Yohannes Haile-Selassie, curator of physical anthropology at The Cleveland Museum of Natural History. Based on skeletal analysis, the fossil is believed to conclusively show that the species was fully bipedal. At more than five feet in stature, Kadanuumuu is much taller than the famous "Lucy" fossil of the same species discovered in the 1970s, and is approximately 400,000 years older. Among other characteristics, Kadanuumuu's scapula (part of the shoulder blade), the oldest discovered to date for a hominid, is comparable to that of modern humans, suggesting that the species was land rather than tree-based. Not all researchers agree with this conclusion.
For more information, click here. Or, Try these sources:
- Rex Dalton (2010-06-20). "Africa's next top hominid: Ancient human relative could walk upright.". Nature. Can be read here.
- Ker Than (2010-06-21). ""Lucy" Kin Pushes Back Evolution of Upright Walking?". National Geographic. Can be read here.