Posted on Categories Discover Magazine
A reconstruction of the skull of Australopithecus afarensis. (Credit: Wikimedia Commons)
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 resea