Australopithecus africanus

Meaning of the name

«Southern ape» from Africa

Discovery site

South Africa

Age

3.3–2.1 million years

Height and weight

♂: 1.40 m, 40 kg 

♀: 1.1 m, 25 kg

Brain size

420 to 500 cm³ (larger than in modern apes, but smaller than in modern humans)

Body characteristics

Flat forehead, less prominent superciliary ridges than in earlier species, broad cheekbones, protruding jaw, funnel-shaped thorax, long arms, curved fingers, short legs, broad and short pelvis, head joint lies centrally below the skull (upright posture).

Teeth

Mixture of primitive and modern features; reduced canines, large flat molars indicate strong chewing muscles.

Habitat

Forests, savannah and bushland in South Africa.

Nutrition

A mixed diet of fruits, seeds, roots and possibly small animals.

Tools

No reliable evidence of tool manufacture.

Best known find

In 1924, Raymond Dart, who was then teaching at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, received a box of fossils from a limestone mine in Taung, a small town in South Africa. He noticed that one of the stones contained a small skull partially embedded in limestone.
It was the skull of a child about three years old, who lived about 2.4 million years ago. The skull showed a mixture of ape-like and human-like features.
The discovery was revolutionary as it supported the hypothesis put forward by Charles Darwin that the cradle of mankind was in Africa and not in Asia or Europe - which was believed by many scientists at the time.

Special features

The shape of the pelvis, the hip joint and the bones of the lower limbs indicate an upright, bipedal gait. The long arms and the curved finger bones suggest that Australopithecus africanus lived both on the ground and in the trees in the savannahs of South Africa. It probably lived in groups.
Australopithecus africanus is an important milestone in human evolution, as it exhibits both primitive and advanced characteristics. It was considered a possible ancestor of the genus Homo. After the discovery of the much older A. afarensis from East Africa, it is considered a South African side line.