M4 montage: Four different Australopithecus crania that were found in the Sterkfontein caves, South Africa. The Sterkfontein cave fill containing this and other Australopithecus fossils was dated ...

T he Australopithecus has been around for a while now—and so has our knowledge of that human ancestor. The species Australopithecus africanus (“the southern ape of Africa”) was first ...

MRD shows that Australopithecus anamensis had a protruding face with a prominent forehead and cheek bones, much like other australopiths in the fossil record. The Australopithecus anamensis skull.

Australopithecus inhabited eastern and southern Africa from roughly 4.2 to 1.9 million years ago. Our species Homo sapiens appeared roughly 300,000 years ago.

The discovery of new Australopithecus sediba fossils mean we can now reconstruct most of the spine of one individual, and strengthen the case that the species was bipedal at least some of the time ...