Australopithecus

Australopithecus

Uncredited · CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikidata/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Also called
australopithecinePBDB
Sits inside
HomininiPBDB
Diet
omnivorePBDB, for Hominidae
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Hominidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 3.5 million years on record.

The record covers at least 5.333 Mya to 1.8 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 11.63 Mya to 11.7 ka.

Miocene — about 2 of 85 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 62 of 85 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 21 of 85 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 0 of 85 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences10–9.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.7–9.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.3–8.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.9–8.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.5–8.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.1–7.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.7–7.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.3–6.9 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences6.9–6.5 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences6.5–6.1 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences6.1–5.7 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences5.7–5.3 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences5.3–4.9 Mya — about 4 occurrences4.9–4.4 Mya — about 4 occurrences4.4–4.0 Mya — about 4 occurrences4.0–3.6 Mya — about 4 occurrences3.6–3.2 Mya — about 17 occurrences3.2–2.8 Mya — about 19 occurrences2.8–2.4 Mya — about 15 occurrences2.4–2.0 Mya — about 8 occurrences2.0–1.6 Mya — about 5 occurrences1.6–1.2 Mya — about 2 occurrences1.2–809 ka Mya — about 2 occurrences809 ka–404 ka Mya — about 0.6 occurrences404 ka–0 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences5.333 Mya1.8 Mya12.1 Mya0 Mya

85 occurrences of Australopithecus on record, most of them in the Pliocene. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

85 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

19 formations

Hadar — 11.17°N, 40.58°EHadar — 11.12°N, 40.59°EHadar — 11.07°N, 40.77°EHadar — 11.00°N, 40.50°EShungura — 5.06°N, 36.03°EShungura — 5.15°N, 36.03°EChemoigut — 0.65°N, 36.20°EKanapoi — 2.37°N, 36.08°EKanapoi — 2.32°N, 36.07°EChemeron — 0.67°N, 35.83°EKoobi Fora — 4.09°N, 36.31°EKoobi Fora — 3.59°N, 36.24°ESterkfontein — 26.02°S, 27.73°EVogel River Series — 3.01°S, 35.20°EVogel River Series — 3.13°S, 35.13°ENachukui — 3.08°N, 35.83°ENachukui — 2.90°N, 36.05°EMakapansgat — 24.20°S, 28.95°EFejej — 5.00°N, 37.00°ELothagam 1 — 2.88°N, 36.07°ESagantole — 10.50°N, 40.58°ENawata and Nachukui — 2.88°N, 36.07°EUSNO — 5.35°N, 36.17°ELukeino — 0.50°N, 35.67°EOlduvai — 2.99°S, 35.35°ERift Valley — 1.39°S, 36.72°EChesowanja — 0.65°N, 36.20°E

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The named rock units Australopithecus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 9 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Australopithecus and its relatives

Pliocene

Where Australopithecus and its relatives were recorded in the Pliocene.

Found in the same rock

437 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 84 sites for Australopithecus, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

44 references

Each of the 85 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 32 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content3

Picture of Australopithecus

Credit
nobody named on the record
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

Laser scan

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Australopithecus sediba · wits:malapa:88-054

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itHominini through timeFormations of the PlioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Dart 1925