About 5-6 million years ago there were tree-living apes that gave rise to two major groups of animals. One group remained in the forests and is represented today by living chimps and gorillas, and the other lived more on the edges of the forest and gave rise to the hominids, today represented only by humans.

Meaning of scientific name
"southern primate"

Pronunciation of scientific name
oss-trah-loh-PITH-ek-us

Statistics
Males 1.5m tall, females 1-1.2m tall.

Physical description
There were many species of these bipedal apes living in Southern and Eastern Africa between about 4.5 and 1.5 million years ago. Australopithecus afarensis is one of the older and more lightly built species.

Distribution
Australopithecus afarensis is known from fossils found in Ethiopia (Hadar, Aramis), Tanzania (Laetoli) and Kenya (Omo, Turkana, Koobi Fora, Lothagam) including the famous fossil named .Lucy..

Habitat
They inhabited the patchy savannah-land of Africa.

Diet
They were omnivorous, feeding on fruit, tubers, nuts and probably some meat.

Behaviour
Australopithecus were adapted to living on the edges of the forest and on the savannah-land whilst their cousins, the animals which finally gave rise to chimps, were adapted to the deeper forest. They lived in groups of about a dozen individuals, probably with males remaining in the same group all their lives whilst females moved when they became sexually mature. They had brains about the size of modern chimps' and so probably had similar tool-using capabilities. They had small canine teeth compared with other apes and so were probably not fighting using their teeth, and either were less violent or were using other methods of attack.

Conservation status
Extinct.

History
They lived 3.9-3 million years ago. Australopithecus were one of the early hominids, and had developed bipedal walking while still living much of their life in the trees.

Best place to see
Natural History Museum; Oxford University Museum of Natural History; Hunterian Museum, Glasgow; University of Dundee Museum Collections; Royal Museum & Museum of Scotland; Cumberland House Natural History Museum; Sheffield City Museum & Mappin Art Gallery.

Closest relative
Humans.