Australopithecus Essay, Research Paper

Australopithecus

By: Chris Stewart

Date: December 15th

1996 Biology

There are many types of the hominid called australopithecus, which means

southern apes. These were small ape-like creatures(with a height between 107cm

and 152cm) that showed evidence of walking upright. It is difficult to tell

whether these begins are “humans” or “apes”. Many of their characteristics are

split between humans and apes. The many species of australopithecus include

A.(australopithecus) ramidus, A. anamenesis, A. afarensis, A. africanus, A .

acthiopicus, A. robustus, and A. boisei. The oldest known and identified species

of australopithecus that roamed the earth was a. ramidus who lived about 4.5

million years ago. Next came A. Anamensis, A afarensis, A africanus, A.

acthiopicus, a boisei and a. robustus. Ausralopithecus boisei roamed the earth

as early as 1.1 million years ago and was on earth at the sametime as homo

habilis and homo erectus. Most of the australopithecus fossils that have been

discovered have been found in eastern africa and have been dated between 4.5

million and 1.1 million years old. There has also been evidence that the

australopithecus “man” lived in australia where fossils have also been found.

The first discovery of an australopithecus fossil was made in 1924. The body of

the australopithecus is smaller than humans, but biffer than chimpanzees. Also,

The brain size of australopithecus is bigger than humans at about 475 cubic

centimeters. This is also biffer than the chipanzees, but the brains were not

developed in most areas. For example speech. The australopithecus species all

had mostly the same features with a low forehead, a “bony ridge”over the eyes, a

flat nose and no chin. Their jaws stuck out and they had large back teeth. Even

today, many more species of australopithecus are being discovered.

Australopithecus anamensis was only named in august 1995, even though it is one

of the oldest species of australopithecus(living between 4.2 and 3.9 million

years ago.)