Laetoli

Laetoli

▪ anthropological and archaeological site, Tanzania
also spelled  Laetolil 

      site of paleoanthropological excavations in northern Tanzania about 40 km (25 miles) from Olduvai Gorge, another major site.

 Mary Leakey (Leakey, Mary Douglas) and coworkers discovered fossils of Australopithecus afarensis (Australopithecus) at Laetoli in 1974–75, not far from where a group of hominin (of human lineage) fossils had been unearthed in 1938. The fossils found at Laetoli date to a period between 3.76 and 3.46 million years ago (mya). They come from at least 23 individuals and take the form of teeth, jaws, and a fragmentary infant skeleton. In volcanic sediments dated to 3.56 mya are trails of remarkably humanlike footprints along with those of numerous animals. A. afarensis is best known from the Ethiopian site of Hadar, but the footprints at Laetoli are of monumental importance in the record of human evolution. Homo sapiens fossils have also been found at Laetoli in strata dating to about 120,000 years ago.
 

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Universalium. 2010.

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  • Laetoli — is a site in Tanzania, dated to the Plio Pleistocene and famous for its hominid footprints, preserved in volcanic ash (Site G). The site of the Laetoli footprints is located 45 km south of Olduvai gorge. Professor Terry Harrison, a physical… …   Wikipedia

  • Laetoli — site de Tanzanie où furent mises au jour, en 1976, des traces de pas d australopithèque, les plus anciennes (vers 3,5 millions d années) traces connues d hominidé …   Encyclopédie Universelle

  • Laetoli — Die abgedeckten Spuren 2006 Fußspuren im Vergleich: die grünen Linien verbinden Punkte gleicher Dru …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Laetoli — 2° 59′ 46″ S 35° 21′ 09″ E / 2.99622, 35.3524 …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Laetoli — La llanura de Laetoli en 2006. Localización de Laetoli (TZ 2), entre los principales yacimientos con restos de homínidos en África. : Chad (TD) : •  TD 1 …   Wikipedia Español

  • Laetoli — Laẹtoli,   Laẹtolil, Ausgrabungsstätte in der südlichen Serengeti, Tansania; 1974 80 wurden hier fossile Menschenreste gefunden sowie 1978/79 Fußspuren mehrerer auf zwei Füßen gehender Individuen verschiedener Größe (Entdecker P. Abell,… …   Universal-Lexikon

  • Laetoli footprints — Several trails of bipedal footprints, possibly those of Australopithecus afarensis (see Australopithecus), preserved in volcanic ash at Laetoli in northern Tanzania and dated to 3. 6 million years ago. They were discovered in 1976 by a team led… …   Universalium

  • Laetoli, huellas de — Serie de huellas bípedas, posiblemente del Australopithecus afarensis (ver Australopithecus); se conservan en cenizas volcánicas en Laetoli, en el norte de Tanzania, y tienen una antigüedad de 3,6 millones de años. Fueron descubiertas en 1976 por …   Enciclopedia Universal

  • Australopithecus afarensis — Nachbildung des Skeletts von Lucy im Museo Nacional de Antropología in Mexiko Stadt Zeitraum Pliozän 3,8 bis 2,9 Mio. Jahre …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • human evolution — Evolution of modern human beings from nonhuman and extinct hominid forms. Genetic evidence points to an evolutionary divergence between the lineages of humans and the great apes (Pongidae) on the African continent 5–8 million years ago. The… …   Universalium

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