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To: Conservative Texan Mom
Can an entire skeleton can be reconstructed based on these findings?

The answer is no, but a lot can be determined from the specimen.

From the abstract:

They include diagnostic craniodental remains, the largest hominid canine yet recovered, and the earliest Australopithecus femur.

The femur alone can indicate how tall the species was, whether it was relatively bipedal, how long its forearms likely were (more or less -- there's a ratio). Craniodental remains tell us what it ate, can indicate if it was bipedal, degree of prognathis and general cranial morphology and place it pretty firmly in relation to other species on the timeline. Just from those, we can get a pretty good sense, though obviously not complete, of what it looked like.

91 posted on 04/13/2006 2:51:11 PM PDT by Alter Kaker ("Whatever tears one sheds, in the end one always blows one's nose." - Heine)
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To: Alter Kaker

Is the timeline determined by comparing it to other fossils, or by the strata in which it was found, or both, or something altogether different?
Thanks


135 posted on 04/13/2006 3:57:37 PM PDT by Conservative Texan Mom (Some people say I'm stubborn, when it's usually just that I'm right.)
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