A Closer Look at Australopithecus Africanus
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- The story of Australopithecus africanus begins with the Piltdown Man hoax in England, where Charles Dawson presented fossil fragments that seemed to show a large-brained human ancestor with an apelike jaw.
- Piltdown Man was widely accepted by European scientists because it fit the preferred narrative that big-brained early humans were Europeans, despite skepticism from some paleontologists.
- In 1924, Raymond Dart discovered the Taung Child in South Africa, naming it Australopithecus africanus, with humanlike teeth, a flat face, and evidence of bipedal walking.
- European scientists rejected Dart's finding, dismissing him as an untrained outsider and arguing the fossil was just a young ape, partly because it contradicted the 'big-brained Europeans' hypothesis.
- Robert Broom supported Dart and found additional adult Australopithecus fossils at Sterkfontein, alongside thicker-boned fossils he named Paranthropus.
- In 1953, Piltdown Man was exposed as an intentional fraud: the skull was medieval human, the jaw was an orangutan, and teeth were filed and stained to appear ancient.
- The exposure of the Piltdown hoax helped convince paleoanthropologists that early hominids originated in Africa, where all known earliest hominids have been found.
- Australopithecus africanus is now one of the best-known hominins, with remains from at least 250 individuals found in South Africa, dating from 3.2 to 2 million years ago.
- A. africanus was clearly bipedal, adapted to open grasslands, with a diet mostly of C4 grassland foods, though some scavenged meat is possible.
- Most experts consider A. africanus to be in the direct human ancestral line, though some argue it was a side branch or ancestral to Paranthropus.