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Australopithecus Africanus
Australopithecus africanus2
Details
Latin name: Australopithecus Africanus
Common name: The Taung child
Evolution leap: Fifth
Time frame: 2.5 - 2 million years ago
Previous leap: Australopithecus Afarensis
Next leap: Homo Ergaster


Australopithecus Africanus are hominini.

Evolution Details

Australopithecus Africanus is the Fifth Evolution Leap in the game. This evolution is played from approximately 2,500,000 years ago and will change to the next species after you reach approximately 2,000,000 years ago.

Trivia

Australopithecus africanus is the first species of australopithecine to be described. Notable for its experimentation with a sort of proto-language; clan members making distinct noises (sometimes containing up to two or three syllables) when engaging in particular interactions - basic call, mating call, follow, etc.

Australopithecus africanus is an extinct species of australopithecine which lived from 3.67 to 2 million years ago in the Middle Pliocene to Early Pleistocene of South Africa. The species has been recovered from Taung and the Cradle of Humankind at Sterkfontein, Makapansgat, and Gladysvale. The first specimen, Taung child, was described by anatomist Raymond Dart in 1924, and was the first early hominin found. However, its closer relations to humans than to other apes would not become widely accepted until the middle of the century because most had believed humans evolved outside of Africa principally due to the hoax transitional fossil Piltdown Man from Britain. It is unclear how A. africanus relates to other hominins, being variously placed as ancestral to Homo and Paranthropus, to just Paranthropus, or to just P. robustus. The specimen "Little Foot" is the most completely preserved early hominin, with 90% intact, and the oldest South African australopith, but it is controversially suggested this and similar specimens be split off into "A. prometheus".[1]

References


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