Australopithecus africanus
A more lightly built australopith occupies southern Africa's cave country for over a million years.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 720 thousand years
- Known to
- ± 200 thousand years
- Era
- Pliocene, Cenozoic
Australopithecus africanus is known chiefly from the South African cave sites of Taung, Sterkfontein and Makapansgat, where hominins fell or were dragged into fissures and were cemented into breccia. It has a rounder skull and smaller face than the East African forms but a similar brain size, and its limb proportions suggest it climbed more than afarensis did. Its cave context makes it difficult to date precisely, which is a persistent problem with the entire southern African record.