Australopithecus
/ˌɒstrələʊˈpɪθɪkəs
/noun
A fossil bipedal primate with both apelike and human characteristics, found in Pliocene and Lower Pleistocene deposits (circa 4 million to 1 million years old) in Africa.
- Genus Australopithecus, family Hominidae: several species, including the lightly built A. africanus, which is thought to be the immediate ancestor of the human genus Homo.
- Dart, who along with Charles Darwin before him suspected that Africa, not Asia, was the cradle of humankind, named the fossil Australopithecus, or ‘southern ape.’
- In Australopithecus fossils, though, the muscle has a much more limited area of attachment.
Derivatives
australopithecine
- All hominids, including the australopithecines, are bipedal, meaning that they walk on two legs, and are therefore members of the ancestral lineage leading to modern humans (we are the sole bipedal apes).
- How could the australopithecines survive in Pliocene Africa?
- This hominid was larger than the australopithecines and Homo habilis, with a brain approaching the size of a modern human brain.
Origin
Modern Latin, from Latin australis 'southern' (see austral) + Greek pithēkos 'ape'.