Australopithecus | Characteristics & Facts | Britannica

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Australopithecus, (genus Australopithecus), group of extinct primates closely related to, if not actually ancestors of, modern human beings and known from a series of fossils found at numerous sites in eastern, north-central, and southern Africa. 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.

As characterized by the fossil evidence, members of Australopithecus bore a combination of humanlike and apelike traits. They were similar to modern humans in that they were bipedal (that is, they walked on two legs), but, like apes, they had small brains. Their canine teeth were smaller than those found in apes, and their cheek teeth were larger than those of modern humans.

The general term australopith (or australopithecine) is used informally to refer to members of the genus Australopithecus. Australopithecines include the genus Paranthropus (2.3–1.2 mya), which comprises three species of australopiths—collectively called the “robusts” because of their very large cheek teeth set in massive jaws. Non-australopithecine members of the human lineage (hominins) include Sahelanthropus tchadensis (7–6 mya), Orrorin tugenensis (6 mya), Ardipithecus kadabba (5.8–5.2 mya), and Ar. ramidus (5.8–4.4 mya)—that is, pre-Australopithecus species that are considered to be ancient humans—and one additional species of early human, Kenyanthropus platyops (3.5 mya). The first undisputed evidence of the genus Homo—the genus that includes modern human beings—appears as early as 2.8 mya, and some of the characteristics of Homo resemble those of earlier species of Australopithecus; however, considerable debate surrounds the identity of the earliest species of Homo. In contrast, remains older than six million years are widely regarded to be those of fossil apes.

Identifying the earliest member of the human tribe (Hominini) is difficult because the predecessors of modern humans become increasingly apelike as the fossil record is followed back through time. They resemble what would be expected in the common ancestor of humans and apes in that they possess a mix of human and ape traits. For example, the purported earliest species, Sahelanthropus tchadensis, is humanlike in having a slightly reduced canine tooth and a face that does not project forward very far. However, in most other respects, including brain size, it is apelike. Whether the species walked upright is not known because only a single cranium, fragments from one or more mandibles (lower jaws), and some teeth have been found.

Bipedalism, however, appears to have been established in the six-million-year-old Orrorin tugenensis, a pre-Australopithecus found in the Tugen Hills near Lake Baringo in central Kenya. In 2001 these fossils were described as the earliest known hominin. O. tugenensis is primitive in most if not all of its anatomy, except for femurs (thighbones) that appear to share traits of bipedalism with modern humans. Like later hominins, it has teeth with thick molar enamel, but, unlike humans, it has distinctively apelike canine and premolar teeth. The case for its hominin status rests on the humanlike features of the femur. According to its discoverers, features of the thighbone implying bipedalism include its overall proportions, the internal structure of the femoral neck (the column joining the ball-shaped head of the femur to the shaft of the bone), and a groove on the bone for a muscle used in upright walking (the obturator externus).

Another candidate for the earliest hominin is classified in the genus Ardipithecus (5.8–4.4 mya). The remains of Ar. kadabba (5.8–5.2 mya), which were discovered in the middle Awash River valley in the Afar region of Ethiopia (a depression located in the northern part of the country that extends northeast to the Red Sea), comprise fragments of limb bones, isolated teeth, a partial mandible, and a toe bone. While the canine tooth is apelike in some respects, it does not exhibit the classic interlocking honing complex (where the inner side of the upper canine sharpens itself against the lower premolar [or bicuspid]). The toe bone assigned to Ardipithecus exhibits bipedal anatomy, but it was found in sediments 400,000 years younger than, and some 20 km (12.4 miles) away from, the fossil used to define Ar. kadabba and may belong to another species of early hominin.

Ar. ramidus, which was discovered in the middle Awash valley in 1992 at a site named Aramis, is known from a crushed and distorted partial skeleton. The skull is apelike with a tiny brain—300–350 cc (18.3–21.4 cubic inches), which is equivalent to a brain weight of about 300–350 grams (10.6–12.3 ounces)—and a prognathic (projecting) snout. The foramen magnum (large hole) at the base of the skull is located under the braincase, as in a biped, and not posteriorly, as in a quadrupedal (four-legged) ape (see skull).

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Several other anatomical characteristics of Ar. ramidus suggest that it was adapted to an arboreal setting. The upper limb differs from that of modern humans. It is very long, which allowed its fingertips to extend at least to the knee. The extremely large hands of the species suggest a lifestyle that included significant climbing and other activities among the trees. The pelvis is a mix of ape and human traits; it appears to be broader, shorter, and narrower than an ape’s pelvis and reminiscent of a bipedal pelvis. The foot is notably apelike with elongated toes and a fully divergent great toe for moving about in trees. Animal fossils, pollen, and other evidence associated with Ar. ramidus also indicate that it was at home in a wooded environment (see also Ardi).

The earliest member of the genus Australopithecus is Au. anamensis, which was discovered in northern Kenya near Lake Turkana at Kanapoi and Allia Bay. The species was first described in 1995 after an analysis of isolated teeth, upper and lower jaws, fragments of a cranium, and a tibia unearthed at the discovery sites. The fossils date to 4.2–3.9 mya, and, like Ardipithecus, Au. anamensis is associated with woodland animals and a few grassland species as well.

The snout is prognathic. The teeth have thick enamel, like the teeth of all later hominins but unlike those of Ar. ramidus, which have apelike thin enamel. The tibia (shinbone) exhibits anatomy at both the knee and ankle ends characteristic of later bipedal hominins.

A badly crushed and distorted cranium found at Lomekwi on the western shore of Lake Turkana in northern Kenya in 1998 was assigned to a new genus and species, “human from Kenya,” Kenyanthropus platyops (3.5 mya). It too is associated with woodland fauna. Whether this singular specimen is truly a new species is widely debated, since the cranium may be a highly distorted example of another species, Au. afarensis.