AUSTRALOPITHECUS

(southern ape), genus of extinct hominids that lived in Africa from the early Pliocene Epoch (beginning about 5.3 million years ago) to the beginning of the Pleistocene (about 1.6 million years ago). Most paleoanthropologists believe that this genus is ancestral to modern human beings. The australopithecines were distinguished from early apes by their upright posture and bipedal gait. Their brains were relatively small, not very different from those of living apes, but their teeth were more similar to those of humans.