Elsevier

Journal of Human Evolution

Volume 7, Issue 2, February 1978, Pages 127-131
Journal of Human Evolution

Relationship of Australopithecus and Homo

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0047-2484(78)80004-9Get rights and content

The hominid status of Australopithecus was originally challenged following the initial discovery at Taung, and has again been recently questioned by C. E. Oxnard on the basis of mensurational studies of a few, usually fragmentary, and sometimes ill-preserved skeletal parts. However, numerous morphometric studies of the postcranial skeleton of this taxon demonstrate close overall resemblance to Hominidae, some resemblances to extant African Pongidae, but scant, if any, resemblance to Pongo. The overall structure of Australopithecus is unmistakably hominid when joints and functional complexes relevant to posture and to locomotion are examined. Although Australopithecus demonstrably coexisted with early Homo populations in sub-Saharan Africa, the australopithecine grade affords an appropriate ancestral morphotype for the emergence of the genus Homo.

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