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Australopithecus africanus is an extinct species of australopithecine which lived between about 3.3 and 2.1 million years ago in the Late Pliocene to Early Pleistocene of South Africa. [1] The species has been recovered from Taung, Sterkfontein, Makapansgat, and Gladysvale.
Mrs. Ples is the popular nickname for the most complete skull of an Australopithecus africanus ever found in South Africa.Many Australopithecus fossils have been found near Sterkfontein, about 40 kilometres (25 mi) northwest of Johannesburg, in a region of Gauteng (part of the old Transvaal) now designated as the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site.
Australopithecus species are thought to have eaten mainly fruit, vegetables, and tubers, and perhaps easy-to-catch animals such as small lizards. Much research has focused on a comparison between the South African species A. africanus and Paranthropus robustus.
Dart's claim that Australopithecus africanus, the species name that he had given to the Taung Child, was a transitional form between apes and humans was almost universally rejected. Robert Broom, a Scottish doctor who worked in South Africa, was one of the few scientists to believe Dart. [24]
STS 14 is a fossilized partial skeleton of the species Australopithecus africanus.It was discovered at Sterkfontein, South Africa by Robert Broom and John T. Robinson in August 1947, and is estimated to be about 2.5 million years old.
Clarke assigned the "Little Foot" bones to the specimen Stw 573 and categorized this Australopithecus as belonging to the Australopithecus africanus species. Clarke believed that the structure of the skeleton of "Little Foot" suggested that they had apelike functions.
They focused on excavations at the caves of Sterkfontein (where they discovered "Mrs. Ples" a specimen of Australopithecus africanus, in 1947), Swartkrans (which yielded several fossils of Paranthropus robustus and Telanthropis capensis) and Kromdraai. They discovered over 300 specimens of early humans, the Australopithecinae. [3]
The Sterkfontein Caves were the site of the discovery of a 2.3-million-year-old fossil Australopithecus africanus (nicknamed "Mrs. Ples"), found in 1947 by Robert Broom and John T. Robinson. The find helped corroborate the 1924 discovery by Raymond Dart of the juvenile Australopithecus africanus skull known as the " Taung Child " at Taung in ...