View source for AL 129-1

{{Short description|Hominin fossil}}
{{Infobox fossil
|catalog number = AL 129-1
|common name = Johanson's Knee<ref name="eFossils">{{Cite web | url = http://www.efossils.org/page/boneviewer/Australopithecus%20afarensis/AL%20129-1 | title = Australopithecus afarensis: AL 129-1 | publisher = University of Texas | accessdate = 2013-04-12}}</ref>
|image = Al129knee.jpg
|species = ''[[Australopithecus afarensis]]''
|age = 3.4 mya
|place discovered = [[Hadar, Ethiopia|Hadar]], [[Ethiopia]]
|date discovered = 1973
|discovered by = [[Donald Johanson]]
}}
'''AL 129-1''' is a fossilized knee joint of the species ''[[Australopithecus afarensis]]''. It was discovered in [[Hadar, Ethiopia|Hadar]], [[Ethiopia]] by [[Donald Johanson]] in November 1973.<ref>{{harvnb|Johanson|Edey|1981|p=154}}</ref><ref name=letter>{{cite web
| last = Johanson
| first = Donald
| authorlink =Donald Johanson
| title =Lucy's Knee Joint, Letter from Donald Johanson, August 8, 1989
| publisher =[[TalkOrigins Archive]]
| year=  1989
| url =http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/knee-joint/johanson1.html
| accessdate =2007-06-03 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web
|last=Foley
|first=Jim
|title=Prominent Hominid Fossils
|publisher=[[TalkOrigins Archive]]
|year=2004
|url=http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/homs/specimen.html#al129-1
|accessdate=2007-06-03
|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070607052446/http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/homs/specimen.html
|archivedate=7 June 2007
|url-status=live
}}<br />{{cite web
|last=Foley
|first=Jim
|title=Biographies: Donald Johanson
|publisher=[[TalkOrigins Archive]]
|year=1998
|url=http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/homs/djohanson.html
|accessdate=2007-06-03
|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070523200505/http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/homs/djohanson.html
|archivedate=23 May 2007
|url-status=live
}}</ref>
It is estimated to be 3.4 million years old.<ref name="eFossils" /> Its characteristics include an elliptical [[lateral condyle of femur|Lateral condyle]] and an oblique [[Femur|femoral shaft]] like that found in humans, indicating [[bipedalism]].
==Discovery==
French geologist [[Maurice Taieb]] discovered the Hadar Formation in 1968. He then formed the IARE, inviting notably Johanson, an [[United States|American]] [[anthropologist]] and founding director of the Institute of [[Human#Evolution|Human Origins]] of [[Arizona State University]]; Jon Kalb, an [[United States|American]] [[geologist]]; and [[Yves Coppens]], a French-born [[paleontologist]] now based at the [[Collège de France]], to co-direct the research. An expedition was formed with four American and seven French participants, and in the fall of 1973 the team surveyed [[Hadar, Ethiopia]] for fossils and artifacts related to the origin of humans.<ref>{{harvnb|Johanson|Edey|1981|pp=154–158}}</ref>
They found numerous fossils, but at first no hominids. Then, in November 1973, near the end of the first field season, Johanson tapped a fossil fragment he thought was a [[hippopotamus]] rib. He found that it was actually a fossil of a proximal tibia, the upper end of a shinbone. From its small size, he thought it was a monkey, and decided to collect it. While he was writing it up, he noticed a few yards away a distal femur, the lower end of a thighbone. This was split between the condyles, or lumps making the knee joint.<ref name="Johanson 1981 159–160">{{harvnb|Johanson|Edey|1981|pp=159–160}}</ref>
The other condyle lay next to it, and when he fitted them together and to the proximal tibia, the angle that the femur and tibia formed at the knee joint clearly showed that this was an upright walking [[hominid]].  This angular joint was in contrast to an ape, which has the femur and tibia forming a straight line. [[Tom Gray (anthropologist)|Tom Gray]] walked up, and when shown the tibia on its own, thought it was a monkey, but when shown the angle formed with the tibia, agreed that this was from a hominid.<ref name="Johanson 1981 159–160"/>
This was an immensely important find, as it would be the first showing upright walking hominids from 3.4 million years ago.<ref name="eFossils" /> On the day after finding the fossil Johanson was beginning to doubt his certainty, and there was an urgent need for confirmation as their agreement with the Ethiopian government required his team to describe the finds at a press conference before it left. He did not want to botch his first important fossil interpretation, but he would not be allowed to take the fossil away for study unless he gave a description. That second evening he remembered a nearby ruin of an Afar burial mound. Comparison of the fossil finds with modern bones exposed by the collapsed side of the mound showed that, except for size, the bones were indeed virtually identical.<ref>{{harvnb|Johanson|Edey|1981|pp=161–163}}</ref>
The team returned for the second field season in the following year and found hominid jaws. Then, on the morning of November 24, 1974, Johanson and Gray were searching in a gully about two and a half kilometres from the site where the knee joint had been discovered, where Johanson found the first fossil fragment of [[Lucy (Australopithecus)]].<ref name=letter/>
== See also ==
*[[List of fossil sites]] ''(with link directory)''
*[[List of hominina fossils|List of hominina (hominid) fossils]] ''(with images)''
==Further reading==
*Johanson, D. C. and T. Taieb, 1976. ''A preliminary anatomical diagnosis of the first plio/pleistocene hominid discoveries in the central Afar, Ethiopia.'' Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. 45: 217-234.
* {{Citation|surname1= Johanson |given1= Donald |authorlink1=Donald C. Johanson|surname2= Edey |given2= Maitland |year=1981|title=Lucy, the Beginnings of Humankind|place=St Albans|publisher=Granada|isbn=0-586-08437-1}}
==References==
<references/>
==External links==
*{{cite web | title=Images of AL 129-1 | url=http://www.mnh.si.edu/anthro/humanorigins/ha/al129.htm | accessdate=2006-07-12| archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20060711040224/http://www.mnh.si.edu/anthro/humanorigins/ha/al129.htm| archivedate= 11 July 2006 | url-status= live}}
[[Category:Australopithecus fossils]]
[[Category:Neogene fossil record]]