Can anyone enlighten me on the Australopithecus (or is it Lucy for short)?

Question

Where does she fit in with the human lineage, and does she come before or after Habilus. ?

Answer 1

Australopitecinae are a group of different species of ground dwelling hominids, brain was still little but bipedalism was yet well developed (but less efficient than in Homo genus).

They are seen as result of adaptation of ancient hominoids (Ramapitecinae) to dryer climate in eastern Africa where forests

were declining.

Gracile forms (like Lucy, which was a female Australopitecus Afarensis) were more ancient and show yet a good bipedalism; the trend in later forms was toward a more robust build and specialized mastication for dry climate herbs, grains and roots; a clear divergence from the human kind.

It is possible that Homo Habilis brached from early (gracile) Australopitecinae, specializing in hunting so being selected for better bipedalism (to follow the game), bigger brain expecially for language zones (for cohordinating pack hunting) and for systematic use of tools.

Gracile forms of australopitecus were near extincted at time of oldest Homo Habilis evidences we know, about 2 mya, but various robust forms survived at least half a million year alongside Homo genus.

Due to the differences between robust and gracile australopitecinae, robust forms are often set as a separate genus which is called Paranthropus (beside human) because was contemporary and clearly not an ancestor of first humans.

Answer 2

Using Linnaean taxonomy (the scientific classification that goes Kindom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Subfamily, Genus, and Species) Australopthecus is the Genus name for a group of hominids (refers to the Family - - Hominidae, but is important because it means they were bipedal) that lived in Africa around 4 million years ago.  Some australopithicines are thought ancestors of modern humans, but not all.  It depends on their species and the geographic location where their fossils are found.  If you want to look at some different examples of how people put them into our family tree search human phylogeny on the web.  

There are two types of australopithicus anthropologists talk about.  They are the robust and gracile.  These groups are not part of Linnaean taxonomy.  It refers to the fact that some had big teeth and jaw muscles that resulted in large bony crests on the top of their head like the sagital crests of modern male gorillas and some were thinner and looked more like modern chimpanzees.  Generally those that are robust are not thought part of our line.  The last of these robust guys died out around 1.2 million years ago.

Lucy is a particular australopithicine found by Don Johanson and named after the Beatles song Lucy in the Sky.  She was classified as gracile and belongs to the group australopithicus afarensus (afarensus is the species name).  A. afarensus is dated to about 3.9 to 2.9 million years ago, is found in East Africa, and is thought part of our line.  This means she is an ancestor of the genus Homo (think Homo sapien, which is us).  

H. habilus is classified in the genus homo, but is an early version dated to about 2.4 to 1.6 million years ago.  H. habilus was found in Tanzania by Mary and Louis Leaky and the name means handy man (homo means man and habilus means handy) because of tools found nearby.  There is a little bit of debate as to whether or not H. habilis is part of our line.  This is in part because this was such a huge time for hominids and there were quite a few different species running around together.  I generally classify him as our ancestor and the species that pre-dates H. erectus who was the first hominid to reach full human stature, control fire, and leave Africa.  Sometimes you'll see H. ergaster between H. habilis and H. erectus, but H. ergaster bascially refers to early H. erectus that was limited to Africa.

Hope that helps.

Answer 3

"Lucy", formally know as AL288-1, (cataloged as: "Afar location, find #288-1") is the remains of  an Australopithecus afarenis. ("Southern ape of Afar") She was found in 1974. Don Johanson's team found the remains. Her name came from the fact that the song "Lucy in the Sky" was playing the evening that the team brought the remains in. Lucy was found in the Afar triangle of Ethiopia, near the town of Hadar. She is considered the most complete skeleton found from that time.

By the way, it's interesting how the claim of "most complete" was made.

There are 206 bones in the hominid body. If you count the paired bones (two arms, two legs, etc.) as one, then you have the 120 bones of a "half skeleton." Lucy is described as 20 percent of a whole or 28 percent of a half skeleton. Alan Walker found Nariokome Boy a Homo erectus skeleton. This had 67 bones, 33 percent of a whole and 40 percent of a half skeleton. curious, Walker asked Don Johanson, Lucy's discoverer, how he arrived at her percentages. Johanson stated he had discounted the 106 bones of the hands and feet (they are only rarely found) this gave the percentages that are quoted. By that computation, Nariokome Boy is 66 percent complete.

Lucy stood some 3.5 feet tall and lived 3.0 to 3.5 million years ago. She is the most complete skeleton found from that period. Brain capacity, a suggestive means of determining intelligence, is thought to have been 410cc. The modern human brain averages 1400 cc. The species is thought to have gone extinct some 2.5 million years ago.

What makes Lucy important is that her ability to walk on two feet rather then on four feet or having to use a "knuckle walk." The term for walking on two feet is bipedalisim, and Lucy's remains showed that it was well established. Due to the completeness of the remains, Lucy's overall body proportions could be established. This gave critical information about what the hominids looked like and how early they had adopted walking on two feet. Lucy walked slightly bowlegged and based on the curved toes and pelvis shape, appear to still be spending time in trees. The shape of the pelvis appeared to show that her young would have had an easier time being born. They didn't have to turn and twist as do human children today do.

The term "Australopithecus" means "southern ape." The genus includes, afarenis, boisei, robustus and Prometheus

        Homo habilis "Handy man" comes after Lucy. This is reported to be the first known species of the genus Homo. The brain is larger the Australopithecus, 650-800cc compared to 500cc, the arms shorter, and hip bones that facilitated bipedal walking. Body size was reduced from boisei and robustis, back to between four and five feet. Weight is put at 110 pounds. The species is dated at 2.5 to 1.5 million years ago. Habilis was a throw back in that the head had not changed with the rest of the body. It still retained the brow ridges, jaws and nose of the Australopithecus. In fact, some discoveries were so labeled.

       Homo H is so names as he's believed to be the first to use tools. He's followed by Homo Erectus, the first to leave Africa

Answer 4

It was an ape that lived in swampland but up in the trees. she had to walk upright when she came down from the tree or she'd have drowned, but an ape just the same.

Answer 5

You have to understand the lineage of Australopithecus first, as there are different sub-orders (africanus, afarensis, etc).

Answer 6

The brains of most species of Australopithecus were roughly 35% of the size of that of a modern human brain. Most species of Australopithecus were diminutive and gracile, usually standing no more than 1.2 and 1.4 m (approx. 4 to 4.5 feet) tall. In several variations of australopithecine there is a considerable degree of sexual dimorphism, meaning that males are larger than females. Modern hominids do not appear to display sexual dimorphism to the same degree- particularly, modern humans display a low degree of sexual dimorphism, with males being 15% larger than females, on average. In australopithecines, males can be up to 50% larger than females. New research suggests that sexual dimorphism may be far less pronounced than this, but there is still much debate on the subject.

Answer 7

Basically, Austrolopithecus , according to evolutionary scientists, is the breaking point between chimps and human beings, and it before all the Homo______________ species, and was a hominin not a hominid (which is all human like creatures)

.

Basically, according to evolution, it is the begginning point of the evolutionary line of man