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What is Australopithecus?

21-01-2025

09:30 AM

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1 min read
What is Australopithecus? Blog Image

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