Australopithecus africanus | fossil primate | Britannica (original) (raw)
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association with Osteodontokeratic tool industry
In Osteodontokeratic tool industry …where the first specimen of Australopithecus africanus was found, and at Makapansgat, where other specimens of A.africanus were found. Dart proposed that these fossils were tools used by A.africanus, an early hominid species. He postulated that teeth were used as saws and scrapers, long bones as clubs, and so… Read More
comparison with Homo habilis
In Homo habilis: Body structure …important contrast to the so-called gracile australopiths, in which the cranial base is relatively narrow and elongated. Read More
evolution of foot
In foot Australopithecus africanus, which lived approximately two to three million years ago, had a fully modern foot and probably strode. Read More
human evolution
In human evolution: The fossil evidence … of later hominins such as A. africanus (3.3–2.4 mya) and Paranthropus robustus (1.8–1.5 mya) of South Africa do not differ markedly from those of A. afarensis. The locomotor skeleton of eastern African P. boisei (2.2–1.3 mya) is poorly known, but there is no reason to assume that it was different… Read More
In human evolution: Hominin habitats Models of the habitat of Au. africanus, based on fauna from the two major South African cave sites—Sterkfontein and Makapansgat—stress closed-canopy wooded conditions: either dry woodland with grasslands nearby or subtropical forest. During the tenures of H. habilis and Read More
relationship to Australopithecus sediba
In Australopithecus sediba: Body structure sediba and A. africanus, remains of which found in southern Africa show that it lived there between about 3.3 million and 2.0 million years ago. This evidence suggested that A. sediba could be a direct descendant of A. africanus. Read More
species of Australopithecus
In Australopithecus: Australopithecus africanus In 1925 South African anthropologist Raymond Dart coined the genus name Australopithecus to identify a child’s skull recovered from mining operations at Taung in South Africa. He called it Australopithecus africanus, meaning “southern ape of Africa.” From then until 1960 almost all Read More
findings
Makapansgat
In Makapansgat …of about 40 individuals of Australopithecus africanus, a species of gracile (slender) hominin dating from 2.5 to 3 million years ago or more. The nearby Cave of Hearths yielded the right side of an early Homo sapiens child’s jaw, dating from about 100,000 to 200,000 years ago. Read More
Sterkfontein
In Sterkfontein …first discovery of an adult Australopithecus africanus, an early hominin originally described in 1925 from Taung, another South African site. At first Broom ascribed his fossils to A. transvaalensis, a hitherto-unknown species. In 1947 he uncovered an adult skull so unique and well preserved that he proposed an entirely new… Read More
Taung child fossil
In Taung child …the first discovered fossil of Australopithecus africanus. Exhumed by miners in South Africa in 1924, the fossil was recognized as a primitive hominin (member of the human lineage) by paleoanthropologist Raymond Dart. Read More
work of
Berger
In Lee Berger …examinations of the morphology of A. africanus. He was part of the team that made the first discovery of A. africanus at the Gladysvale Cave site near Sterkfontein in South Africa. In 1995 he and a colleague published a paper hypothesizing that the “Taung child,” a fossil 2.3 million to… Read More
Dart
In Raymond A. Dart …a new genus and species, Australopithecus africanus, or “southern ape of Africa.” His claim that a creature with an ape-sized brain could have dental and postural characteristics approaching those of humans initially met with hostile skepticism because his theory entailed the principle of mosaic evolution, or the development of some… Read More
