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The terms australopithecines, et. al., come from a former classification as members of a distinct subfamily, the Australopithecinae. [6] Members of Australopithecus are sometimes referred to as the "gracile australopithecines", while Paranthropus are called the "robust australopithecines". [10] [11]
Australopithecus (/ ˌ ɒ s t r ə l ə ˈ p ɪ θ ɪ k ə s,-l oʊ-/, OS-trə-lə-PITH-i-kəs, -loh-; [1] or (/ ɒ s ˌ t r ə l ə p ɪ ˈ θ iː k ə s /, os-TRA-lə-pi-THEE-kəs [2] from Latin australis 'southern' and Ancient Greek πίθηκος (pithekos) 'ape' [3]) is a genus of early hominins that existed in Africa during the Pliocene and Early Pleistocene.
Australopithecus is considered a grade taxon whose members are united by their similar physiology rather than close relations with each other over other hominin genera. It is unclear how any Australopithecus species relate to each other, [20] but it is generally thought that a population of A. anamensis evolved into A. afarensis. [10] [20] [21]
An article in The New York Times claimed that the world holds 300 pounds of insects for every pound of humans. [28] Ants have colonised almost every landmass on Earth. Their population is estimated as between 10 16 –10 17 (10-100 quadrillion). [29]
Homo (from Latin homō 'human') is a genus of great ape (family Hominidae) that emerged from the genus Australopithecus and encompasses only a single extant species, Homo sapiens (modern humans), along with a number of extinct species (collectively called archaic humans) classified as either ancestral or closely related to modern humans; these include Homo erectus and Homo neanderthalensis.
Population bottleneck followed by recovery or extinction. A population bottleneck or genetic bottleneck is a sharp reduction in the size of a population due to environmental events such as famines, earthquakes, floods, fires, disease, and droughts; or human activities such as genocide, speciocide, widespread violence or intentional culling.
Lucy Catalog no. AL 288-1 Common name Lucy Species Australopithecus afarensis Age 3.2 million years Place discovered Afar Depression, Ethiopia Date discovered November 24, 1974 ; 50 years ago (1974-11-24) Discovered by Donald Johanson Maurice Taieb Yves Coppens Tom Gray AL 288-1, commonly known as Lucy or Dinkʼinesh, is a collection of several hundred pieces of fossilized bone comprising 40 ...
A. sediba was initially described as being a potential human ancestor, and perhaps the progenitor of Homo, but this is contested and it could also represent a late-surviving population or sister species of A. africanus which had earlier inhabited the area. MH1 has a brain volume of about 350–440 cc, similar to other australopithecines.