GRADES: 9-12 K.HOLLAND AUSTRALOPITHECUS AFRICANUS

CONTENTS Who they are… The Finding. What they looked like. What they ate. Their culture. How they relate to us. Some Fossils Found

WHO THEY ARE An early hominid, an australopithecine, who lived between 2–3 million years ago in the Pliocene.

THE FINDING The first fossil found was found by Raymond Dart in a lime mine in South Africa. The fossil was named the Taung Child, after the town it was found in. His claim was rejected by the scientific community at the time because of the belief that a large cranial capacity must precede bipedal locomotion. Twenty years later, the public accepted the new genus and that it was a member of hominidae.

WHAT THEY LOOKED LIKE… Like A. afarensis, A. africanus the South African counterpart was generally similar in many traits, a bipedal hominid with arms slightly larger than the legs (a physical trait also found in chimpanzees). Despite its slightly more human-like cranial features, seen for example in the crania Mr. Ples and STS 71, other more primitive features including ape-like curved fingers for tree climbing are also present.

WHAT THEY ATE They ate fruit, nuts, insects, seeds, plants, roots, and eggs. Scientists can tell this by looking at their teeth, tooth-size, shape and wear.

CULTURE There is no known culture. They lived too long ago, and have not left enough behind to show us what their culture may have been like. No stone tools have been found among their remains.

HOW THEY RELATE TO US Researchers can argue that some of the fossil features suggest that the Australopiths are not the direct ancestors of the genus Homo, but that they share a common ancestor. Some say there is too much biological discontinuity for the two creatures to be directly related. Others say that bipedalism requires important changes to the bones, muscle arrangement and limb movement. Any difference, such as that of the inner ear bones, may be an evolutionary vestige of the animal's past. Researchers need more fossils, especially of Homo habilis, H. rudolfensis and the earlier species, such as Sahelanthropus tchadensis, to resolve this problem.

SOME FOSSILS FOUND Sts 14: a partial skeleton discovered in1947 by Robert Broom and John Robinson in Sterkfontein, South Africa. Taung Child : a partial skull and brain endocast discovered in 1924 in Taung, South Africa MLD 2 : a lower jaw from an adolescent discovered in Makapansgat, South Africa. Sts 71 : a 2.5 million-year-old partial skull discovered in 1947 by Robert Broom and John Robinson in Sterkfontein, South Africa. ‘ Mrs Ples’ or Sts 5 : this 2.5 million-year-old skull discovered in 1947 by Robert Broom and John Robinson in Sterkfontein, South Africa.

Taung Child Mrs Ples