What does the term "Australopithecine" refer to?
Q: What does the term "Australopithecine" refer to?
A: The term "Australopithecine" refers to any species in the related genera Australopithecus or Paranthropus. These genera occurred in the Pliocene–Pleistocene era, and were bipedal.
Q: How did Australopithecines differ from modern apes?
A: Australopithecines had a brain size not much larger than modern apes, lacking the large brain of the genus Homo. They also did not have the large canine teeth characteristic of present-day apes.
Q: How was their walking efficiency compared to humans?
A: The efficiency of their walking is difficult to estimate, but they were not as well adapted to bipedalism as humans.
Q: What can be said about their family arrangement?
A: The males were much larger than the females, which suggests a family arrangement with a dominant male and several females, similar to that of modern apes.
Q: What is known about their use of tools?
A: Nothing is known for certain about their use of tools.
Q: When did they appear in history?
A: They appeared in the late Miocene, around four million years ago (mya).
Q: What other genera are related to Australopithecines?
A: Other related genera include Kenyanthropus (3.5 - 3.2 mya), Ardipithecus (5.6 - 4.4 mya), Sahelanthropus (7 mya) and Orrorin (6.1 - 5.7 mya).
