Great stuff Hollywood. I have to replicate the abstract so people can read this properly:
Published online on April 10, 2007, 10.1073/pnas.0606454104
PNAS | April 17, 2007 | vol. 104 | no. 16 | 6568-6572
BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES / ANTHROPOLOGY
Gorilla-like anatomy on Australopithecus afarensis mandibles suggests Au. afarensis link to robust australopiths
Yoel Rak*,, Avishag Ginzburg*, and Eli Geffen
*Department of Anatomy and Anthropology, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, and Department of Zoology, Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel
Aviv 69978, Israel
Edited by David Pilbeam, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, and approved February 26, 2007 (received for review July 28, 2006)
Mandibular ramus morphology on a recently discovered specimen of Australopithecus afarensis closely matches that of gorillas. This finding was
unexpected given that chimpanzees are the closest living relatives of humans. Because modern humans, chimpanzees, orangutans, and many other primates
share a ramal morphology that differs from that of gorillas, the gorilla anatomy must represent a unique condition, and its appearance in fossil
hominins must represent an independently derived morphology. This particular morphology appears also in Australopithecus robustus. The presence of the
morphology in both the latter and Au. afarensis and its absence in modern humans cast doubt on the role of Au. afarensis as a modern human ancestor.
The ramal anatomy of the earlier Ardipithecus ramidus is virtually that of a chimpanzee, corroborating the proposed phylogenetic scenario.
Peer reviwed and with evidence galore.
