View source for Australopithecus

{{also|australopithecus}}
==Translingual==
{{wikipedia|''Australopithecus''}}
{{wikispecies}}

===Etymology===
{{der|mul|NL.|-}}, from {{der|mul|la|austrālis||southern}} + {{der|mul|grc|πίθηκος||ape}}, named by Australian anatomist {{w|Raymond Dart}} in 1925 in reference to the type specimen having been found in [[South Africa]].

===Proper noun===
{{taxoninfl|i=1|g=m|pl=Australopitheci}}

# {{taxon|genus|family|Hominidae|a group of [[extinct]] [[hominid]]s related to [[humans]] – [[australopith]]s}}
#* {{quote-journal|en|termlang=mul|author=W. Mehlert|title=The Australopithecines and (Alleged) Early Man|editor=Harold L. Armstrong|journal=Creation Research Society Quarterly|volume=17|issue=1|location=Ann Arbor, Mich.|publisher=w:Creation Research Society|date=24 October 1979|month_published=June|year_published=1980|page=24|pageurl=https://archive.org/details/crsq-1980-volume-17-number-1/page/24/mode/1up|column=1|passage=Likewise, Richard Leakey himself is of the opinion that all '''''Australopitheci''''' were not habitual upright walkers.}}
#* {{quote-book|en|termlang=mul|author=Bernard Michollet|chapter=Evolution and Anthropology. Human Beings as the ‘Image of God’|editors=Bas van Iersel; Christoph Theobald; Hermann Häring|title=Evolution and Faith|series=[[w:Concilium (journal)|Concilium]]|seriesvolume=2000/1|location=London|publisher=w:SCM Press|year=2000|section=section III (The Dialogue with Faith and Theology)|page=81|pageurl=https://archive.org/details/evolutionfaith0000unse/page/81/mode/1up|isbn=0 334 03057 9|passage=Do we have to see in this making of tools only a particular adaptation, analogous, for example, to birds making nests? Or are degrees of intelligence and significant consciousness already present in certain types of '''''Australopitheci'''''?}}
#* {{quote-book|en|termlang=mul|author=[[w:David Bainbridge (scientist)|David Bainbridge]]|chapter=Where women’s bodies came from|title=Curvology: The Origins and Power of Female Body Shape|location=London|publisher=[[w:Granta#Granta Books|Portobello Books]]|year=2015|section=part I (The Body)|page=19|pageurl=https://archive.org/details/curvologyorigins0000bain/page/19/mode/1up|isbn=978 1 84627 550 0|passage='''''Australopithecus''''' was probably already adapted for bipedal walking, but its brain was not much larger than a chimp’s, so there was still a lot of obstetric leeway. The pelvis was now a different shape, however, and we think that baby '''''Australopitheci''''' may have been born with their head ‘sideways’ relative to their mother’s body, with their nose pointing towards their mother’s left or right hip.}}
#* {{quote-book|nl|termlang=mul|author=Marianen Gommers; Desirée Hagens; Arthur Jansen; Miranda Jansen; André van Leijen; Hans Rawee; Theo de Rouw|title=Biologie voor jou|edition_plain=edition 6.1|publisher=Malmberg|year=2020|page=217|pageurl=https://archive.org/details/Malmberg-bvj-books/601740-01_bvj_4h_lob_a_bladerboek/page/217/mode/1up|isbn=978 94 020 7765 0|passage=In afbeelding 2 staat een schatting van de lichaamslengte van deze twee twee '''''Australopitheci'''''.}}

====Usage notes====
Members of the genus {{taxfmt|Paranthropus|genus}} are sometimes grouped together with this genus.

====Hypernyms====
* {{sense|genus}} {{Hominidae Hypernyms}}; {{taxfmt|Homininae|subfamily}}&nbsp;- subfamily; {{taxfmt|Hominini|tribe}}&nbsp;- tribe; {{taxfmt|Hominina|subtribe}}&nbsp;- subtribe

====Hyponyms====
* {{sense|genus}} {{taxlink|Australopithecus africanus|species}}&nbsp;- type species, {{taxlink|Australopithecus afarensis|species}}, {{taxlink|Australopithecus bahrelghazali|species}}, {{taxlink|Australopithecus anamensis|species}}, {{taxfmt|Australopithecus garhi|species}}, {{taxfmt|Australopithecus sediba|species}}&nbsp;- other species

{{C|mul|Hominids}}

==English==

===Alternative forms===
* {{alter|en|australopithecus}}

===Etymology===
From the genus name.

===Noun===
{{en-noun|Australopitheci|+}}

# {{synonym of|en|australopith}}.
#* {{quote-book|en|author=P{{quote-gloss|avel}} Kann|chapter_tlr=Robert Daglish|chapter=Strelka of Vasilyevsky Island|title=Leningrad: A Short Guide|location=Moscow|publisher=[[w:Foreign Languages Publishing House (Soviet Union)|Foreign Languages Publishing House]]|year=1959|page=86|pageurl=https://archive.org/details/leningrad0000pave/page/86/mode/1up|passage=In its turn the institute received from the British Museum of Natural History plaster casts of the skulls of '''Australopithecuses''', a species of higher ape which lived over a million years ago.}}
#* {{quote-journal|en|author=Herbert Musurillo|title=[Book Reviews: Philosophy] {{smallcaps|The Phenomenon of Man}}. By Pierre Teilhard de Chardin.{{nb...|With an Introduction by Sir Julian Huxley. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1959. Pp. 318. $5.00.}}|journal=[[w:Thought: Fordham University Quarterly|Thought: Fordham University Quarterly; A Review of Culture and Idea]]|volume=XXXV|issue=138|location=New York, N.Y.|publisher=w:Fordham University Press|month=autumn|year=1960|page=450|pageurl=https://archive.org/details/sim_thought_autumn-1960_35_138/page/450/mode/1up|issn=0040-6457|passage=In his final period, Teilhard felt he saw all his own ''Weltanschauung'' confirmed by Dr. Broom’s work with the fossils of '''Australopitheci''' in South Africa; {{...}}}}
#* {{quote-book|en|author=w:Stephen Fuchs|chapter=The Human Race in Its Development from the Earliest Times|title=The Origin of Man and His Culture|location=New York, N.Y.|publisher=Asia Publishing House|year=1963|page=25|pageurl=https://archive.org/details/originofmanhiscu0000step/page/25/mode/1up|passage=1. ''Australopithecus africanus''. (''a'') ''Taungs'': It was found in 1924 in a cave at Taungs in Bechuanaland, South Africa. It is the oldest of all '''Australopitheci''', about 600,000 years old.}}
#* {{quote-book|en|author=w:Pierre Teilhard de Chardin|chapter_tlr=[[w:J. M. Cohen|J{{quote-gloss|ohn}} M{{quote-gloss|ichael}} Cohen]]|chapter=The Question of Fossil Man|title=The Appearance of Man|location=New York, N.Y.|publisher=[[w:Harper (publisher)|Harper & Row]]|year=1965|pages=108–109|pageurl=https://archive.org/details/appearanceofman00teil/page/109/mode/1up|lccn=66-10233|passage=On the other, in the fossil-bearing pockets exposed in the Transvaal, in the region of Johannesburg (Taungs, Sterkfontein) by quarries opened in the limestone (exactly as at Choukoutien), a whole series of skulls and jaws, and some limb bones have, since 1925, gradually been disclosing the extremely curious group of '''Australopitheci'''.}}
#* {{quote-book|en|author=[[w:Mikhail Ivanovich Budyko|M{{quote-gloss|ikhail}} I{{quote-gloss|vanovich}} Budyko]]|chapter_tlr=anonymous|chapter=The Origin of Man|title=Global Ecology|location=Moscow|publisher=w:Progress Publishers|year=1980|section=section VIII (The Ecological Mechanism of the Evolution of Man)|page=224|pageurl=https://archive.org/details/globalecology0000mibu/page/224/mode/1up|passage=In the middle of the nineteenth century there were very few paleontological data shedding light on the origin of man. During the past century many major discoveries were made in that area, among which the discovery of remains of '''Australopithecuses''' in South and East Africa was particularly important, as was the discovery of remains of Pithecanthropes and of closely related creatures (''Homo erectus'') in Java, China, and Africa.}}
#* {{quote-book|en|author=Claudine Roland|chapter_tlr=Ann MacDonald-Plénacoste|chapter=Tools and Men|title=Prehistory|series=In Focus|location=Vic-en-Bigorre|publisher=MSM|year=1995|page=9|pageurl=https://archive.org/details/prehistory00rola/page/9/mode/1up|isbn=2-909998-39-8|issn=1271-8599|passage=The '''Australopitheci''', who lived between the years -&nbsp;6 million and -&nbsp;1 million, perhaps mingled with the first representatives of the human race, the ''Homo habilis''… their presence is certified in Africa as early as the year -&nbsp;2.4 million, but could date back to the year -&nbsp;3 million.}}
#* {{quote-book|en|author=Dario Gamboni|chapter_tlr=Mark Treharne|chapter=From the origins to the classical age|title=Potential Images: Ambiguity and Indeterminacy in Modern Art|location=London|publisher=w:Reaktion Books|year=2002|pages=22–23|pageurl=https://archive.org/details/potentialimagesa0000gamb/page/22/mode/1up|isbn=1-86189-149-0|passage=This stone, which was discovered, several kilometres from any possible geological source, in a cave occupied by '''Australopitheci''' in South Africa, must have been found and transported about three million years ago on account of its redness, its accidental likeness to a face and, above all, because of its ‘gaze’.}}
#* {{quote-book|en|author=Bruno G. Bara|chapter_tlr=John Douthwaite|chapter=The Evolution of Communicative Competence|title=Cognitive Pragmatics: The Mental Processes of Communication|location=Cambridge, Mass.|publisher=w:MIT Press|year=2010|page=215|pageurl=https://archive.org/details/cognitivepragmat0000bara/page/215/mode/1up|isbn=978-0-262-01411-3|passage=In this sphere too, ''Homo habilis'' was the first species of ''Homo'' to exhibit the brain capacity crucial to sustain language: 700 ccs against the 450 ccs of the '''Australopitheci''' who preceded him, and significantly greater development in the parietal and frontal areas, which are respectively responsible for the control over language and over the hands.}}
#* {{quote-book|en|author=Stephen B. Pearl|chapter=Officialdom|title=Worlds Apart|location=Toronto, Ont.|publisher=Dark Dragon Publishing|year=2012|date_published=30 July 2013|page=25|pageurl=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780987972682/page/25/mode/1up|isbn=978-0-9879726-8-2|passage=It’s Wizard McDowl, chaos magic terrifies him. He watched his parents turn into '''Australopithecuses''' during the war. He’s never got over it.}}

{{C|en|Hominids}}