Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Australopithecus Group

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science

Synonyms

Australopiths; Kenyanthropus ; Paranthropus ; Praeanthropus

Definition

A genus (or group of multiple genera) of fossil hominins ranging in geological age from the Pliocene through the early Pleistocene (~4.2–1.2 Ma = Mega-annum, or millions of years) of Africa, the name Australopithecus comes from Greek for “ape” (pithekos) and Latin “of the south” (australis), for the geographical location of the first material discovered, in South Africa.

Introduction

The Australopithecus group (“australopiths”) consists of up to twelve species of Plio-Pleistocene hominins (members of the human lineage following the phylogenetic divergence from chimpanzees and bonobos) mostly included in the genus Australopithecus (but several species are commonly included in a distinct genus, Paranthropus, and one species is named in a distinct genus, Kenyanthropus). Additionally, some researchers suggest that the earliest members of the genus Homo should actually be transferred to Australopithecus,...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Alemseged, Z., Spoor, K., Bobe, W. H., Geraads, R., Reed, D., & Wynn, J. G. (2006). A juvenile early hominin skeleton from Dikika, Ethiopia. Nature, 443, 296–301.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Asfaw, B., White, T., Lovejoy, O., Latimer, B., Simpson, S., & Suwa, G. (1999). Australopithecus garhi: A new species of early hominid from Ethiopia. Science, 284, 629–635.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Backwell, L. R., & d’Errico, F. (2001). Evidence of termite foraging by Swartkrans early hominids. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 98, 1358–1363.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Berger, L.R. (2002). Early hominid body proportions and emerging complexities in human evolution. Evolutionary Anthropology, 11(S1), 42–44.

    Google Scholar 

  • Berger, L. R., de Ruiter, D. J., Churchill, S. E., Schmid, P., Carlson, K. J., Dirks, P. H. G. M., & Kibii, J. M. (2010). Australopithecus sediba: A new species of Homo-like australopith from South Africa. Science, 328, 195–204.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Berger, L. R., Hawks, J., DeRuiter, D., Churchill, S. E., Schmid, P., Delezene, L., Kivell, T., Garvin, H. M., Williams, S. A., DeSilva, J. M., Skinner, M., Musiba, C. M., Cameron, N., Holliday, T. W., Harcourt-Smith, W., Ackermann, R. R., Bastir, M., Brophy, J., Cofran, Z. D., Congdon, K. A., Deane, A. S., Dembo, M., Elliot, M., Feuerriegel, E. M., García-Martínez, D., Green, D. J., Gurtov, A., Kruger, A., Laird, M. F., Marchi, D., Meyer, M. R., Nalla, S., Negash, E. W., Radovcic, D., Scott, J. E., Schroeder, L., Throckmorton, Z., VanSickle, C., Walker, C. S., Wei, P., & Zipfel, B. (2015). Homo naledi, a new species of the genus Homo from the Dinaledi Chamber, South Africa. eLIFE, 4, e09560.

    Article  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Brunet, M., Beauvilain, A., Coppens, Y., Heintz, E., Moutaye, A. H. E., & Pilbeam, D. (1995). The first australopithecine 2,500 kilometers west of the Rift Valley (Chad). Nature, 378, 273–275.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Dembo, M., Matzke, N.J., Mooers, A.O., Collard, M. (2015). Bayesian analysis of a morphological supermatrix sheds light on controversial fossil hominin relationships. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 282, 20150943.

    Google Scholar 

  • Falk, D., Redmond, J. C., Guyer, J., Conroy, G. C., Recheis, W., Weber, G. W., & Seidler, H. (2000). Early hominid brain evolution: A new look at old endocasts. Journal of Human Evolution, 38, 695–717.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Grabowski, M. (2016). Bigger brains led to bigger bodies? Current Anthropology, 57, 174–196.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grabowski, M., Voje, K. L., & Hansen, T. F. (2016). Evolutionary modeling and correcting for observation error support a 3/5 brain-body allometry for primates. Journal of Human Evolution, 94, 106–116.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Granger, D. E., Gibbon, R. J., Kuman, K., Clarke, R. J., Bruxelles, L., & Caffee, M. W. (2015). New cosmogenic burial ages for Sterkfontein Member 2 Australopithecus and Member 5 Oldowan. Nature, 522, 85–88.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Haile-Selassie, Y., Gibert, L., Melillo, S. M., Ryan, T. M., Alene, M., Deino, A., Levin, N. E., Scott, G., & Saylor, B. Z. (2015). New species from Ethiopia further expands middle pliocene hominin diversity. Nature, 521, 483–488.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Harmand, S., Lewis, J. E., Feibel, C. S., Lepre, C. J., Prat, S., Lenoble, A., Boës, X., Quinn, R. L., Brenet, M., Arroyo, A., Taylor, N., Clément, S., Daver, G., Brugal, J.-P., Leakey, L., Mortlock, R. A., Wright, J. D., Lokorodi, S., Kirwa, C., Kent, D. V., & Roche, H. (2015). 3.3-million-year-old stone tools from Lomekwi 3, West Turkana, Kenya. Nature, 521, 310–315.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Johanson, D. C., & White, T. D. (1979). A systematic assessment of early African hominids. Science, 203, 321–330.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kimbel, W. H., & Delezene, L. K. (2009). “Lucy” redux: A review of research on Australopithecus afarensis. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 52, 2–48.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Leakey, M. G., Spoor, F., Brown, F. H., Gathogo, P. N., Kiarie, C., Leakey, L. N., & McDougall, I. (2001). New hominin genus from eastern Africa shows diverse middle Pliocene lineages. Nature, 410, 433–440.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Leakey, M. G., Feibel, C. S., McDougall, I., & Walker, A. (1995). New four-million-year-old hominid species from Kanapoi and Allia Bay, Kenya. Nature, 376, 565–571.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lovejoy, C. O. (2005). The natural history of human gait and posture Part 1. Spine and pelvis. Gait & Posture, 21, 95–112.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lovejoy, C. O., Heiple, K. G., & Burstein, A. H. (1973). The gait of Australopithecus. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 38, 757–780.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Masao, F.T., Ichumbaki, E.B., Barili, A., Boschian, G., Iurino, D.A., Menconero, S., Moggi-Cecchi, J., Manzi, G. (2016). New footprints from Laetoli (Tanzania) provide evidence for marked body size variation in early hominins. eLife, 5, e19568.

    Google Scholar 

  • Prang, T. C. (2015). Calcaneal robusticity in Plio-Pleistocene hominins: Implications for locomotor diversity and phylogeny. Journal of Human Evolution, 80, 135–146.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ruff, B.C., Burgess, M.L., Ketcham, R.A., Kappelman, J. (2016). Limb bone structural proportions and locomotor behavior in A.L. 288–1 (“Lucy”). PLoS ONE 11, e0166095.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reno, P. L., & Lovejoy, C. O. (2015). From Lucy to Kadanuumuu: Balanced analyses of Australopithecus afarensis assemblages confirm only moderate skeletal dimorphism. PeerJ, 3, e925.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Robinson, J. T. (1972). Early hominid posture and locomotion. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Strait, D.S., Grine, F.E. (1997). A reappraisal of early hominid phylogeny. Journal of Human Evolution, 32, 17–82.

    Google Scholar 

  • Villmoare, B. A., & Kimbel, W. H. (2011). CT-based study of internal structure of the anterior pillar in extinct hominins and its implications for the phylogeny of robust Australopithecus. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 108, 16200–16205.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Walker, A., Leakey, R. E., Harris, J. M., & Brown, F. H. (1986). 2.5-Myr Australopithecus boisei from west of Lake Turkana, Kenya. Nature, 322, 517–522.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ward, C. V. (2002). Interpreting the posture and locomotion of Australopithecus afarensis: Where do we stand? American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 45, 185–215.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Washburn, S. L. (1963). Classification and human evolution. Chicago: Adeline.

    Google Scholar 

  • White, T. D., WoldeGabriel, G., Asfaw, B., Ambrose, S., Beyene, Y., Bernor, R. L., Boisserie, J.-R., Currie, B., Gilbert, H., Haile-Selassie, Y., Hart, W., Hlusko, L. J., Howell, F. C., Kono, R. T., Lehmann, T., Louchart, A., Lovejoy, C. O., Renne, P. R., Saegusa, H., Vrba, E., Wesselman, H., & Suwa, G. (2006). Asa Issie, Aramis and the origin of Australopithecus. Nature, 440, 883–889.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • White, T. D., Asfaw, B., Beyene, Y., Haile-Selassie, Y., Lovejoy, C. O., Suwa, G., & WoldeGabriel, G. (2009). Ardipithecus ramidus and the paleobiology of early hominids. Science, 326, 75–86.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wood, B., & Collard, M. (1999). The human genus. Science, 284, 65–71.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Zollikofer, C. P. E., Ponce de León, M. S., Lieberman, D. E., Guy, F., Pilbeam, D., Likius, A., Mackaye, H. T., Vignaud, P., & Brunet, M. (2005). Virtual cranial reconstruction of Sahelanthropus tchadensis. Nature, 434, 755–759.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for the Study of Human Origins, Department of Anthropology, New York University, New York, NY, USA

    Scott A. Williams

Authors
  1. Scott A. Williams
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Scott A. Williams .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Oakland Univ Dept of Psycholgy, Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Viviana Weekes-Shackelford

  2. Department of Psychology, Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Todd K. Shackelford

  3. Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Viviana A. Weekes-Shackelford

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2016 Springer International Publishing AG

About this entry

Cite this entry

Williams, S.A. (2016). Australopithecus Group. In: Weekes-Shackelford, V., Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_3423-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_3423-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Behavioral Science and PsychologyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation