1.2 to 4.4 million years ago was a happening time in human evolution. It’s when our evolutionary branch — the hominins — diversified into about a dozen species, collectively known as Australopiths.
The most famous of these creatures is Lucy, the partial skeleton of a roughly 3-foot-6-inch female discovered in the 1970s. But Lucy is just one of many Australopiths known to science. Over the years researchers have unearthed more than 400 specimens attributed to her species Australopithecus afarensis from sites in Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania.
And beyond A. afarensis, numerous Australopith varieties once roamed the African continent. The first such fossil was found in 1924: the skull of a 3-year-old Australopithecus africanus from South Africa nicknamed the Taung Child. The latest, announced this week, was an Australopithecus anamensis specimen recovered from Woranso-Mille, Ethiopia.
