There are three more australopiths, but they are put under the category of being robust australopiths. Due to some features being very distinct from those of their fellow australopiths some researchers will put these in their own genus called Paranthropus. Compared to the other australopiths these robust species have specific features such as a wide face, large and flaring zygomatic arches, massive mandible, enormous molars, etc. The earliest, called Australopithecusaethiopicus, are represented by very few fossil specimens and lived around 2.7mya to 2.3 mya. The next, Australopithecus robustus, was discovered by Robertbroom. This species lived around 1.8 mya to 1.2 mya and are thought to have used bone tools to help dig up things such as termite mounds for food. The last species is Australopithecus boisei which was discovered in 1959 by Mary Leakey and dubbed "Nutcracker Man" by her husband due to "its huge teeth and evidentlystrong chewing muscles." (Odiga, 357) They, being the most recent robust australopith lived around 2.3 mya to 1.2 mya.
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The Australopithecines
Non-FictionAn essay I wrote on the genus Australopithecus for my biological anthropology lab. Each chapter is a paragraph.
