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Australopithecus About 3.5 million years ago, the earth was populated with deer, giraffes, hyenas, cattle, sheep, goats, antelope, gazelles, horses, elephants, rhinoceroses, camels, ground squirrels, beavers, cave lions, ants, termites, porpoises, whales, dogs with huge teeth, and saber-toothed tigers! Giant sharks, about 42 feet long, were plentiful. There were all kinds of birds and plants and fish, similar to birds, plants and fish today. (Dinosaurs died out about 65 million years ago. They were long gone.) About this same time in history, around 3 million years ago, the higher primates, including apes and early man, first appeared. Australopithecus is one of the longest-lived and best-known early human species—paleoanthropologists have uncovered remains from more than 300 individuals! This species survived for more than 900,000 years, which is over four times as long as our own species (Homo sapiens) has been around. Australopithecus had an apelike face with a low forehead, a bony ridge over the eyes, a flat nose, and no chin. They had protruding jaws (they stuck out) with large back teeth. Brain size varied from about 375 to 500 cc. This is a little larger than chimp brains (despite a similar body size), but still not advanced in the areas necessary for speech. The skull is similar to that of a chimpanzee, except for the more humanlike teeth. Their bones show that they were physically very strong. Females were substantially smaller than males, a condition known as sexual dimorphism. Females were on average 3 feet tall while males were 4.5-5 feet tall. They weighted in between 50-75 lbs. The finger and toe bones are curved and longer than in humans, but the hands are similar to humans in most other details. They were completely bipedal (used legs to walk). The climate of much of Southern Africa, where they lived, was drying out and hot during the period Australopithecus lived, and forest areas were being replaced by bush and veldt [grass land]. They took shelter in tall grass, under rock overhangs but couldn’t take shelter in caves since they didn’t have the tools to fight off the animals living in the caves. They aren't known to use technology (tools). Instead they would use items that they found, such as sticks and rocks. Their hands were also used a tools. Australopithecus had mainly a plant-based diet, including leaves, fruit, seeds, roots, nuts, and insects… and probably the occasional small vertebrates, like lizards. Paleoanthropologists can tell what Australopithecus ate from looking at the remains of their teeth. Dental microwear studies indicate they ate soft, sugar-rich fruits, but their tooth size and shape suggest that they could have also eaten hard, brittle foods too – probably as ‘fallback’ foods during seasons when fruits were not available. Australopithecus would also scavenge when they could, they would eat animals, which were already dead, You might wonder how we know anything about hominids that lived over 3 million years ago! How do we know they even existed? Lucy told us! In 1974, a skeleton was found in Africa by archaeologist Don Johansen. The bones were those of young female, approximately 20 years old when she died. Johansen named this "young lady" Lucy because he was listening to a song “Lucy in the Sky of Diamonds” when he found her. About 3 million years ago, when Lucy was alive, she was rather short, about 4 feet tall, and probably weighed about 50 pounds. Her brain was about the size of an orange. Her bones showed she probably walked erect, although she still had the ability to climb trees easily. There were no signs of broken bones or teeth marks that might show why she died. Scientists suspect that she probably fell into a lake or river and drowned.