Australopithecus

American  

[aw-strey-loh-pith-i-kuhs, -puh-thee-kuhs, aw-struh-loh-] / ɔˌstreɪ loʊˈpɪθ ɪ kəs, -pəˈθi kəs, ˌɔ strə loʊ- /

noun

1. an extinct genus of small-brained, large-toothed bipedal hominins that lived in Africa between one and four million years ago: the genus Homo, to which modern humans belong, is believed to have evolved from this genus or to have shared a common ancestor.

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Australopithecus Cultural  

1. An extinct genus of the hominid family that lived in Africa from about three to one million years ago. The name means “southern ape.”

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Members of this genus were the ancestors of modern humans. One of the best-known fossils, Lucy, was a member of this genus.

Etymology

Origin of Australopithecus

First recorded in 1920–25; from New Latin: literally “southern ape,” equivalent to austrāl(is) “southern” + -o- connecting vowel + pithēcus “ape,” from Greek píthēkos. See austral ¹, -o-,

Example Sentences

Presumably, the character of Lucy was given her name as a nod to our earliest known ancestor, a 3.2-million-year-old Australopithecus afarensis who stood about the same height as Ben.

From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 9, 2026

Other researchers argued it belonged to Australopithecus africanus, a species first described in 1925 by Australian anatomist Raymond Dart and already known from the same region.

From Science Daily • Jan. 5, 2026

That view shifted when researchers analysed 51 fossil teeth from a range of hominids and great apes, including Australopithecus africanus, Paranthropus robustus, early Homo, Neanderthals, and Homo sapiens.

From Science Daily • Nov. 16, 2025

In northern Tanzania, footprints helped anthropologists understand that other hominin species also coexisted near the famous human ancestor “Lucy,” a species known as Australopithecus afarensis, dating back roughly 3 million years ago.

From Salon • Nov. 29, 2024

Those protohumans are generally known as Australopithecus africanus, Homo habilis, and Homo erectus, which apparently evolved into each other in that sequence.

From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond