Revision of the subspecies ofAustralopithecus africanus (primates: Hominidae), including a new subspecies from the late pliocene of Ethiopia

Abstract

The subspecies ofAustralopithecus africanus Dart, 1925 have been revised in a morphological and statistical analysis. Four subspecific names were previously proposed, but only one was found to be valid. The subspeciesA. africanus transvaalensis (Broom, 1936), from the Plio/Pleistocene of South Africa, cannot be sustained due to an insufficient sample, and is combined with the nominate race,A. a. africanus. The type ofA. africanus afarensis Tobias, 1980 is a mistake in identification and notA. africanus, but a pongid. The population ofA. africanus from the late Pliocene of Ethiopia does indeed represent a relatively small-toothed geographical race for which the nameA. africanus aethiopicus was conditionally proposed; and the lectotype for it, A.L. 288-1, is notA. africanus, but the type ofHomo antiquus Ferguson, 1984. The trinominalaethiopicus is thus unavailable for the Ethiopian race, which is redescribed as a new subspecies,A. africanus miodentatus n. ssp., and the mandible A.L. 266-1 is designated as the holotype.