The emergence of the australopithecines meant no longer having a honing canine, a loss of apelike arboreal traits, and a slight increase in brain size as compared to that of pre-Australopithecine. Even with these features being much more like those of Anatomically modern humans. The distinction between genus Australopithecus and genus Homo is a larger brain size along with a reduction in both face and teeth size. Clark Spencer Larsen states that "The phalanges of early hominins, including australopithecines, have an intermediate curvature, which likely reflects an increasing adaptation to bipedalism but a retained ability to move through the trees." (281) The similarities and differences between genus Australopithecus and genus Homo are somewhat few and amazing to look at to see just how similar modern humans are to their ancestors. There unfortunately many, usually average citizens, that will criticize the fact the Australopithecines are so similar to what modern humans are like, there are many people that feel offended by evolution as if they are so much better than those that came before them.
YOU ARE READING
The Australopithecines
Non-FictionAn essay I wrote on the genus Australopithecus for my biological anthropology lab. Each chapter is a paragraph.
