Australopithecus

Australopithecus Latest News

An unidentified early hominin fossil that might be a new species confirms that Australopithecus and Homo species lived in the same region of Africa in the same time frame.

About Australopithecus

• Australopithecus, (genus Australopithecus) is a group of extinct primates known from a series of fossils found at numerous sites in eastern, north-central, and southern Africa.
• They are the closest known relatives of our genus, Homo.
• The various species of Australopithecus lived 4.4 million to 1.4 million years ago (mya), during the Pliocene and Pleistocene epochs (which lasted from 5.3 million to 11,700 years ago).
• The genus name, meaning “southern ape,” refers to the first fossils found, which were discovered in South Africa.
• Perhaps the most famous specimen of Australopithecus is “Lucy,” a remarkably preserved fossilized skeleton from Ethiopia that has been dated to 3.2 mya.

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Australopithecus Features

• Members of Australopithecus bore a combination of humanlike and apelike traits.
• They had apelike face proportions (a flat nose, a strongly projecting lower jaw) and braincase (with a small brain, usually less than 500 cubic centimeters – about 1/3 the size of a modern human brain), and long, strong arms with curved fingers adapted for climbing trees.
• They also had small canine teeth like all other early humans, and a body that stood on two legs and regularly walked upright. 
• They were roughly 1.2-1.5 m tall and probably weighed about 30-50 kg.
• Males were almost twice the size of females, a level of difference, or sexual dimorphism, greater than modern chimpanzees or humans but less than gorillas or orangutans.
• They had mainly a plant-based diet, including leaves, fruit, seeds, roots, nuts, and insects.

Source: LS