Australopithecine

The term Australopithecine ('australos' for short) refers to any species in the genus Australopithecus or the genus Paranthropus. These were bipedal hominids that lived in the Pliocene–Pleistocene epochs.

Description

An illustration of an australopithecine (A. afarensis)

Australopithecines had ape-like and human-like qualities. They were mainly bipedal, like humans, but could probably climb and live at least partly in trees. Their arms were longer in proportion to their bodies, which is useful when moving above the ground. The efficiency of their walking is difficult to estimate, but they were not so well adapted to bipedalism as humans.

The males were much larger than the females, which suggests a family arrangement with a dominant male and several females, as with modern apes. Nothing is known for certain about their use of tools.

The australopithecines had a brain size not much larger than modern apes. The great increase in brain size of modern man began with the genus Homo: it did not start with the australos.

The arrangement of their teeth, especially the dental arcade, was similar to humans. They did not have the large canine teeth characteristic of present-day apes.

Classification

A reconstruction of Australopithecus sediba

Australopithecines are in the hominin tribe of African apes that includes humans and all ancestors of Homo sapiens back to our split from the apes.

The australopithecines appeared in the late Miocene epoch:[source?]

When used alone, the term refers to both genera together. Australopithecus is sometimes referred to as the "gracile (slender) australopithecines", while Paranthropus are also called the "robust australopithecines".

Other genera

Ancestry

A likely ancestor of the australopithecines is the Ardipithecus genus, which lived in East Africa. The genus Homo (humans) appears about 2.4 million years ago with Homo habilis.[source?]

Australos moved into mixed savannah/woodland habitats as the climate cooled in the later Miocene.[source?] This explains their adaptations to walking or walking plus climbing. It also explains the changes to their diet and teeth, though not in detail.

List

A model of a female Australopithecus afarensis. Females were much smaller than males.

The australopithecines according to Briggs & Crowther are:

References

  1. ↑ Wood, B.; Richmond, B. G. (2000). "Human evolution: Taxonomy and paleobiology". Journal of Anatomy. 197 (Pt 1): 19–60. doi:10.1046/j.1469-7580.2000.19710019.x. PMC 1468107. PMID 10999270.
  2. ↑ Mai, L. L.; Owl, M. Y.; Kersting, M. P. (2005). The Cambridge Dictionary of Human Biology and Evolution. Cambridge & New York: Cambridge University Press. p. 45. ISBN 978-0-521-66486-8.
  3. ↑ Wang, Nan; Ma, Jie; Jin, Dan; Yu, Bin (5 April 2024). "A Special Golden Curve in Human Upper Limbs' Length Proportion: A Functional Partition Which Is Different from Anatomy". BioMed Research International. 2017: 1–6. doi:10.1155/2017/4158561. PMC 5292375. PMID 28232941.
  4. ↑ Klein R.G. The human career:human & biological cultural origins. 2nd ed, Chicago, chapter 4, p144.
  5. ↑ Wood B.A. 1994. Evolution of australopithecines. In Jones S. Martin R. & Pilbeam D. (eds) 2004. The Cambridge encyclopedia of human evolution. 8th ed, Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-46786-1
  6. 1 2 3 Larry L Mai; Marcus Young Owl; M Patricia Kersting (2005), The Cambridge dictionary of human biology and evolution, Cambridge & New York: Cambridge University Press, p. 45, ISBN 978-0-521-66486-8{{citation}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  7. ↑ Pickford, Martin (December 2001). "Martin Pickford answers a few questions about this month's fast breaking paper in field of Geosciences". Essential Science Indicators.
  8. ↑ Briggs D.G. & Crowther P.R. (eds) 2008. Palaeobiology II. Wiley, p600. ISBN 9780470999288