Literally, ‘southern apes’, early members of the human lineage that lived from about 4 to about 1 million years ago in Africa. They were adapted for bipedal locomotion, had a high brachial index (forearm:upper arm ratio) relative to other hominids, were sexually dimorphic, were 1.2–1.5 m tall, had a cranial capacity of 350–600 cc, and had large premolar and molar teeth and relatively small incisors and canines. The so-called ‘robust australopithecines’ are nowadays placed in a separate genus, Paranthropus. The other (‘gracile’) australopithecines are also a very diverse group of species, some very primitive and perhaps ancestral to all later hominins, others probably specialized sidelines. The species usually recognized are Australopithecus anamensis (3.9–4.1 million years BP) and A. afarensis (3.75–3.0 million years BP) from East Africa, A. bahrelghazali (about 3.4–3.0 million years BP) from West Africa, and A. africanus (about 3.0–2.4 million years BP) from South Africa. Probably some of these species should be placed in different genera.