Australopiths

Australopithecus is a genus of hominids which are now extinct. The best-known, most widely distributed, and most diverse of the early African hominids are colloquially called australopiths. In fact, this diverse and very suc­cessful group of hominids is made up of two closely related genera, Australopithecus and Paranthropus. These hominids have an established time range of over 3 million years, stretching back as early as 4.2 million years ago not becoming extinct until apparently close to 1 mya; making them the longest enduring hominid yet documented. In addition, these hominids have been found in all the major geographical areas of Africa that have, to date, produced early hominids finds, namely South Africa, central Africa and East Africa.  From all these areas combined, there appears to have been considerably complexity in terms of evolutionary diversity, with numerous species now recognized by most paleoanthropologists. There are two major subgroups of australopiths, with an earlier group (dated to 4.2-3 mya) composed of at least two different species. These earlier australopiths show several more primitive (ancestral) hominid characteristics than the later australopith group, whose members are more derived, some extremely so. These more derived hominids lived after 2.5 mya and are composed of two different genera, together represented by at least four different species (see Appendix B for a complete listing and more discussion of early hominid fossil finds). Given the 3-miIlion-year time range as well as quite varied ecological niches, there are numerous intriguing adaptive differences among these varied australopith species.

The earliest australopiths, dating to 4.2-3.9 mya, come from East Africa from a couple of sites in northern Kenya. Among the fossils finds of these earliest aus­tralopiths so far discovered, a few postcranial pieces clearly indicate that locomotion was bipedal. There arc, however, a few primitive features in the dentition, including a large canine and a sectorial lower first premolar .Since these particular fossils have initially been interpreted as more primitive than all the later members of  the genus, palcoanlhropologists have provisionally assigned them to a separate species of Australopithecus. This important fossil species is now called Australopithecus anamenisis

Questionnaire:

• Explain more about the Australopithecus.