What is Australopithecus?
21-01-2025
09:30 AM
1 min read

Overview:
Australopithecus had a variable but plant-based diet, according to an analysis of stable isotope data from seven hominin specimens dating back 3.5 million years from Sterkfontein in South Africa.
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.
- Features:
- As characterized by the fossil evidence, members of Australopithecus bore a combination of humanlike and apelike traits.
- Members of this species 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.

Q1: How old is mankind?
Fossils and DNA suggest people looking like us, anatomically modern Homo sapiens, evolved around 300,000 years ago. Surprisingly, archaeology – tools, artefacts, cave art – suggest that complex technology and cultures, “behavioural modernity”, evolved more recently: 50,000-65,000 years ago.
Source: SN