What famous skeletons were found in the East Rift Valley?
New fossils from Kenya suggest that an early hominid species — Australopithecus afarensis — lived far eastward beyond the Great Rift Valley: much farther than previously thought.
Why is the East African Rift Valley important to anthropologists?
Most anthropologists believe that east Africa’s rift valley played a central role in human evolution. Spanning nine nations from Mozambique to Ethiopia, it has been the site of many key discoveries of fossils and artifacts. The rift valley is an ideal storehouse of ancient remains.
Why is the East African Rift Valley the home of human evolution?
The Rift Valley in East Africa has been a rich source of hominid fossils that allow the study of human evolution. The rapidly eroding highlands quickly filled the valley with sediments, creating a favorable environment for the preservation of remains.
Why is the Great Rift Valley important for the study of fossils?
The Great Rift Valley is an important area of the world for understanding the origins of human evolution because it is a massive geological feature characterized by active volcanoes and earthquakes over millions of years. As a result, many layers of sediments, rocks, and fossils are exposed in the Great Rift Valley.
What did the Africans call Lucy?
Dinknesh
The discovery of Dinknesh, also known as Lucy, changed the way we understand evolution.
Is the cradle of life real?
According to existing archaeological and fossil evidence, however, the Cradle of Humankind (originally known as Cradle of Mankind) is the Afar Triangle in East Africa, which is often referred to as the Cradle of Humanity….Cradle of Humankind.
| UNESCO World Heritage Site | |
|---|---|
| Reference | 915 |
| Inscription | 1999 (23rd Session) |
| Extensions | 2015 |
Why is the rift Valley important?
The system of rift valleys that characterizes the African continent represents a perfect environment to understand the evolution of mankind; for the important paleoanthropological discoveries in Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Zaire, the African rift valleys are indeed considered the “cradle of mankind”, that is …
Why is East Africa referred to as the Cradle of Humankind?
The self-proclaimed name Cradle of Humankind reflects the fact that the site has produced a large number of (as well as some of the oldest) hominin fossils ever found, some dating back as far as 3.5 million years ago.
Why is the Rift Valley important?
Why is the Great Rift Valley an important physical feature?
The Great Rift Valley provides evidence of a split in the African Plate, dividing it into two smaller tectonic plates: the Somalian Plate and the Nubian Plate.
What was Lucy’s diet?
afarensis had mainly a plant-based diet, including leaves, fruit, seeds, roots, nuts, and insects… and probably the occasional small vertebrates, like lizards.
What is a rift valley?
A rift valley refers to a lowland region where tectonic plates rift, or move apart. The large crack that recently exposed itself in Kenya is from the East African Rift. In the 3,700 mile-long East African Rift, there are two smaller systems called the Gregory Rift and the Western Rift, and each is speckled with volcanoes.
What is the eastern branch of the Great Rift Valley?
The eastern branch, thought to have formed first in the early Miocene, is a volcanic-rich system that forms the Kenya and Ethiopian Rifts and contains the shield volcano Erta Ale which has an active lava lake.
How is the East African Rift Valley formed?
If rifting continues, new basaltic oceanic crust may form along the centre of the rift producing a new narrow ocean basin with its own mid ocean ridge between the Nubian and Somalian plates. Whilst both the Vale of Eden and the East African Rift Valley are formed by continental rifting they are formed in response to different crustal processes.
Is there a rift valley in the continental lithosphere?
Continental Rift Valleys Very few active rift valleys are found on continental lithosphere. The East African Rift, the Baikal Rift Valley, the West Antarctic Rift, and the Rio Grande Rift are Earth’s major active continental rift valleys. The East African Rift is part of the “Great Rift Valley” system discussed below.