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H. habilis is intermediate between Australopithecus afarensis and H. erectus, and there have been suggestions to re-classify it within genus Australopithecus, as Australopithecus habilis. LD 350-1 is now considered the earliest known specimen of the genus Homo, dating to 2.75–2.8 Ma, found in the Ledi-Geraru site in the Afar Region of Ethiopia.
Determining which species of australopithecine (if any) is ancestral to the genus Homo is a question that is a top priority for many paleoanthropologists, but one that will likely elude any conclusive answers for years to come. Nearly every possible species has been suggested as a likely candidate, but none are overwhelmingly convincing.
Genus Homo is assumed to have emerged by around 2.8 million years ago, with Homo habilis being found at Lake Turkana, Kenya. The delineation of the "human" genus, Homo, from Australopithecus is somewhat contentious, for which
The skull KNM-ER 1470 (now H. rudolfensis) was at first dated to 2.9 million years ago, which cast doubt on the ancestral position of both A. afarensis or A. africanus, but it has been re-dated to about 2 million years ago. [8] Several Australopithecus species have since been postulated to represent the ancestor to Homo, but the 2013 discovery ...
Australopithecus fossils become more widely dispersed throughout eastern and southern Africa (the Chadian A. bahrelghazali indicates that the genus was much more widespread than the fossil record suggests), before eventually becoming pseudo-extinct 1.9 million years ago (or 1.2 to 0.6 million years ago if Paranthropus is included).
Australopithecus prometheus, otherwise known as Little Foot has recently been dated at 3.67 million years old through a new dating technique, making the genus Australopithecus as old as afarensis. [33] Given the opposable big toe found on Little Foot, it seems that the specimen was a good climber.
Australopithecus africanus is an extinct species of australopithecine which lived between about 3.3 and 2.1 million years ago in the Late Pliocene to Early Pleistocene of South Africa. [1] The species has been recovered from Taung , Sterkfontein , Makapansgat , and Gladysvale .
Australopithecine bone technology was first proposed by Dart in the 1950s with what he termed the "osteodontokeratic culture", which he attributed to A. africanus at Makapansgat dating to 3–2.6 million years ago. These bones are no longer considered to have been tools, and the existence of this culture is not supported.