| Australopithecines Temporal range:
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|---|---|
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| Australopithecus sediba | |
Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Primates |
| Suborder: | Haplorhini |
| Infraorder: | Simiiformes |
| Family: | Hominidae |
| Subfamily: | Homininae |
| Tribe: | Hominini |
| Subtribe: | Australopithecina Gregory & Hellman, 1939 |
| Type species | |
| †Australopithecus africanus Dart, 1925
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| Genera | |
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| Synonyms | |
The australopithecines, formally Australopithecina or Hominina, are generally any species in the related genera of Australopithecus and Paranthropus. It may also include members of Kenyanthropus,[4] Ardipithecus,[4] and Praeanthropus.[5] The term comes from a former classification as members of a distinct subfamily, the Australopithecinae.[6] They are classified within the Australopithecina subtribe of the Hominini tribe.[7][8] These related species are sometimes[dubious – discuss] collectively termed australopithecines, australopiths or homininans. They are the extinct, close relatives of modern humans and, together with the extant genus Homo, comprise the human clade. Members of the human clade, i.e. the Hominini after the split from the chimpanzees, are called Hominina[9] (see Hominidae; terms "hominids" and hominins).
While none of the groups normally directly assigned to this group survived, the australopithecines do not appear to be literally extinct (in the sense of having no living descendants) as the genera Kenyanthropus, Paranthropus and Homo probably emerged as sister of a late Australopithecus species such as A. africanus and/or A. sediba.
The terms australopithecines, et. al., come from a former classification as members of a distinct subfamily, the Australopithecinae.[6] Members of Australopithecus are sometimes referred to as the "gracile australopithecines", while Paranthropus are called the "robust australopithecines".[10][11]
The australopithecines occurred in the Late Miocene sub-epoch and were bipedal, and they were dentally similar to humans, but with a brain size not much larger than that of modern non-human apes, with lesser encephalization than in the genus Homo.[12] Humans (genus Homo) may have descended from australopithecine ancestors and the genera Ardipithecus, Orrorin, Sahelanthropus, and Graecopithecus are the possible ancestors of the australopithecines.[11]
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- ^ Stanford 2012.
- ^ Gray, J. E. (1825). "An outline of an attempt at the disposition of Mammalia into Tribes and Families, with a list of genera apparently appertaining to each Tribe". Annals of Philosophy. New Series. 10: 337–340.
- ^ Andrews, Peter; Harrison, Terry (1 January 2005). "The Last Common Ancestor of Apes and Humans". Interpreting the Past: 103–121. doi:10.1163/9789047416616_013. ISBN 9789047416616. S2CID 203884394.
- ^ a b Wood 2010.
- ^ Cela-Conde & Ayala 2003.
- ^ a b Kottak 2004.
- ^ Wood & Richmond 2000.
- ^ Briggs & Crowther 2008, p. 124.
- ^ "GEOL 204 The Fossil Record: The Scatterlings of Africa: the Origins of Humanity". www.geol.umd.edu. Retrieved 24 December 2016.
- ^ Mai, Owl & Kersting 2005.
- ^ a b Szpak, P. (2007). "Evolution of the Australopithecines". Tree of Life.
- ^ Mai, Owl & Kersting 2005, p. 45.