Australopithecus africanus
From Freepedia
| Australopithecus africanus Conservation status: Fossil | ||||||||||||||||
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| Australopithecus africanus Dart, 1925 |
Australopithecus africanus was an early hominid, an australopithecine, who lived between 2 and 3 million years ago in the Pliocene. In common with the older Australopithecus afarensis, A. africanus was slenderly built, or gracile, and was thought to have been a direct ancestor of modern humans. Fossil remains indicate that A. africanus was significantly more evolved than A. afarensis however, with a more human-like cranium permitting a larger brain compared to body size and more humanoid facial features.
The name was given to the species by Raymond Dart, an Australian archaeologist, who first described it following the find of the Taung Child in South Africa's Transvaal region in 1924. When more Hominid bones turned up at Makapansgat, he named the species Australopithecus prometheus, because they appeared to him to be fire-blackened and thus indicate the use of fire. The species was reclassified later to A. africanus.
From the fossil record, it is estimated that A. africanus was about 3.5 feet tall and weighed about 75 lbs. Its brain case measured 440 cc and it lived on the savannah.
