Australopithecus is a genus of fossil great apes with signs of bipedal locomotion and anthropoid features in the structure of the skull.
Australopithecus skull found
The skull of a baby Australopithecus was first discovered in South Africa in 1924. This discovery belongs to Raymond Dart, who arrived in Johannesburg in 1922, obsessed with the idea of finding "the missing link between ape and man." With his idea, he was able to captivate the students, who began to send him animal bones found during blasting operations. The professor was especially interested in the finds made in the Taung quarry in the east of the Kalahari Desert.
At his request, the young geologist Jung, who often visits the quarry, sent several boxes with different bones to Johannesburg. At the time the boxes arrived, Dart was at a friend's wedding. Without waiting for it to end, he rushed to unpack the package and found the skull of a humanoid creature in one of the boxes. For two months, he carefully removed the stone from the eye sockets and skull.
A detailed study showed that this is the skull of a child no older than 7 years old. The structure of his face and teeth resembled those of a human, but the brain, although larger than the brain of a monkey, was significantly smaller than the brain of a modern child of this age. Dart gave this creature the name Australopithecus (from Latin australis - "southern" and Greek pithekos - "monkey").
Scientists have been reluctant to acknowledge Dart's find for a long time. Harassment began in the press. They even called to send him to an insane asylum … only 12 years later, in 1936, in Sterkfontein, not far from Johannesburg, R. Broome, during blasting operations, noticed in one of the stones the outline of a skull, which also belonged to Australopithecus.
Two years later, in 3 km from the place of this find, schoolboy Gert Terblanche came across another Australopithecus skull. And soon in the same places the femur, bones and forearm of the left hand were found. These findings were of great importance, since they made it possible, firstly, to determine the height and weight of Australopithecus (130–150 cm, 35–55 kg), and secondly, to conclude that, unlike monkeys, Australopithecus was a bipedal creature, and this is already a distinctive feature of a person.
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Origin
Australopithecus appears to have descended from the late Dryopithecus about 4 million years ago and lived between 4 and 1 million years ago. In our time, scientists distinguish two types of Australopithecus: early and late.
Early Australopithecines (Afar)
The early Australopithecines lived between 4–5 and 1 million years ago. Outwardly, they were very similar to chimpanzees in an upright position. But their hands and fingers were shorter than those of modern monkeys, the canines are less massive, the jaws are not so developed, the teeth and eye sockets were similar to those of humans. The brain volume of the early Australopithecines was approximately 400 cubic centimeters, which roughly corresponds to that of modern chimpanzees.
Australopithecus Lucy
The early Australopithecines are also called Australopithecus afarensis, after the place of the first find in the Ethiopian Afar desert. 1974, November 30 - near the village of Hadar, which is one and a half hundred kilometers from the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, the expedition of Donald Johanson discovered a skeleton. First, archaeologists discovered a small bone in a ravine, then a fragment of the occipital bone, which clearly belonged to a humanoid creature. With great care, archaeologists began to extract the find from the sand and mud. Everyone was in a state of extreme excitement, in the evening no one could fall asleep: they argued about what the find was, listened to the recordings of the Beatles, including the song Lucy in the Diamond Sky. So the name of the find was born by itself - Lucy, which remained in science.
Australopithecus Lucy skeleton
Lucy was an almost complete skeleton of Australopithecus, which included fragments of the skull and lower jaw, ribs, vertebrae, two arms, the left half of the pelvis and femur, and the right shin. The skeleton was surprisingly well preserved, all the bones were in one place and were not taken away by hyenas and jackals. Most likely, Lucy drowned in a river or lake, her body was covered with sand, which later turned to stone and immured the skeleton. Only millions of years later, the movement of the earth pushed him out.
Now Lucy is considered the most famous representative of the Afar Australopithecus. Scientists were able to establish that her height was a little more than a meter, she moved on two legs and had a small brain volume.
Late Australopithecines
The second variety of these anthropoids is the late Australopithecines. They lived mainly in South Africa from 3 to 1 million years ago. Scientists divide the late Australopithecines into three species: a rather miniature African Australopithecus (Australopithecus africanus), which lived mainly in South Africa, and 2 very massive Australopithecus - the South African paranthropus (Paranthropus robustus) and the East African bootyanthropus (Zinjanthropus) The brain volume of the late Australopithecus is 600-700 cubic centimeters. The thumb on the upper limbs was quite large and, unlike the fingers of modern monkeys, opposed to the rest. As a result, the hands of the Australopithecus were more similar in appearance to the hands of a person than to the legs of a monkey.
The Australopithecines had a vertical head position, as evidenced by the absence of strong muscles in the occipital region, which, in a horizontal position, help to keep the head suspended. This once again indicates that the Australopithecines moved exclusively on the hind limbs.
What they ate. How they hunted
Unlike other monkeys, Australopithecus ate not only plant food, but also meat. The bones of other animals found along with the bones of Australopithecus show that they lived not only by gathering edible plants and bird eggs, but also by hunting - both small and rather large animals. Their food was the ancestors of modern baboons, large ungulates, freshwater crabs and turtles, lizards.
According to scientists, Australopithecus used sticks, stones, bones and horns of large animals to protect against attacks by predators and for hunting. This was confirmed by the study of animal bones found during excavations together with Australopithecus. They often find damage received as a result of strong blows from various objects.
Scientists believe that the regular consumption of meat contributed to the more intense brain development of Australopithecus. All this created the necessary conditions for the further evolution of this species of anthropoids from monkey to man. The Australopithecines lived in small, wandering groups. Their life expectancy ranged from 17 to 22 years.
East African zinjanthrop
The East African zinjanthropus was found by the famous English archaeologist Louis Leakey and his wife Mary in 1959 during excavations in the Oldway Gorge. On July 17th, Mary Leakey discovered teeth that clearly belonged to a human being. In terms of their size, they were much larger than the teeth of modern humans, but in structure they were very similar to them. In addition to the teeth, other bones of the skull were visible from the ground. The clearing lasted 19 days, as a result of which the skull was removed from the ground, crushed into 400 pieces. But, since they all lay together, they managed to glue them together and restore the appearance of the anthropoid. Louis Leakey called his find a zinjanthropus (translated from the Greek zinz - the Arabic name for East Africa, anthropos - "man"). Now it is more often called "Australopithecus robust", or "Boysey", in honor of Charles Boisey,who financed the excavation.
Research has shown that the zinjanthropus lived approximately 2.5-1.5 million years ago. He was quite large: the males were already quite human in height, the females were slightly smaller. The brain volume of a zinjanthropus was three times less than that of a modern person, and amounted to 500-550 cubic centimeters.
In late australopithecines, there is a tendency to improve the masticatory apparatus.
L. Antonova
