Australopithecus Africanus

Presentation
By: Larissa McKnight

When Did It Live?

 About 2.5 to 3 million years ago.

Who Discovered It, Where, and When?

 In South Africa at a site called Taung, by Raymond Dart in 1924.

Key Traits

 Between 90 and 110 pounds.

 Slightly taller than A. Afarensis.
 Teeth resembled more human than chimpanzee.
 Front teeth slightly larger, like ours, and canine teeth did not protrude past
the others, like ours.
 Had curved elongated fingers, and elongated arms.
 Big toe divergent, but not opposable.
 Flatter face and more curved forehead.
 Bipedal.

Lifestyle

 Ate mostly fruits, leaves, seeds, and grasses. (Vegetarian)

 Although it was bipedal, it used trees a lot. Possibly for foraging, sleeping and
protection.
 Some believe it had some language capabilities. Not as fully developed as
others though.
 Lived in grasslands that were near forests.

What May Have Caused Its Extinction?

 Some believe it was caused by global cooling.

 Some say it was the growing population of early humans.
 Others think that it was because of their diet. They think that because A.
Africanus were vegetarians, they did not have the intellectual challenges of
predator species, and therefore their brains could not evolve in that
intellectual manner. They believe this caused them to be an evolutionary
dead end.
How is It Connected to Human Evolution?

 We still don’t know today how exactly it is connected to us.

 Although it has a lot of similarities with modern humans, it is considered
more ape than human.
 Some say it is the ancestor of the genus Homo, which is the genus of modern
humans.
 It is very close in relation to A. Afarensis, which is considered the “missing
link” between modern humans and chimpanzees.

Controversy

 Raymond Dart’s theory was rejected by the scientific community.

 Sir Arthur Keith said that the skull Dart found was a young ape, possibly an
infant gorilla.
 Robert Broom and John Robinson proved Dart right by finding Mrs. Ples, a
fossil skull, which was also A. Africanus. He showed that these two findings
did not have the facial projection apes had.
 Some paleontologists stated that A. Afarensis and A. Africanus were the same
species.
 Some stated that A. Africanus evolved into the genus Homo, and they
coexisted for around 1 million years.

Fossil Evidence

 Taung Child – First fossil found of A. Africanus. Found by Raymond Dart in

1924 at the Taung site, where the skull got its name.

 Taung Child
  Mrs. Ples – Found by Robert Broom and John Robinson in a cave in
Strekfontein, South Africa in 1947. It is the most complete skull found in
South Africa of A. Africanus. Around 2 million years old. At the time, it was
thought to be a middle aged female, but now it is though to be a young male.

 Mrs. Ples

Cranial Capacity

 A. Africanus has a cranial capacity of between 435cc and 530cc.

 Humans today have a cranial capacity of between 1300cc and 1500cc.