A genus of fossil hominins that lived roughly 4–2 million years ago, coexisting for some of this time with early forms of humans (see homo). They had both apelike and human features; for instance, they walked erect and had teeth resembling those of modern humans, but they also climbed trees and their brain capacity was less than one-third that of a modern human. Various finds have been made, chiefly in East and southern Africa (hence the name, which means ‘southern ape’). The earliest belong to the species A. anamensis from Kenya and Ethiopia. This may have been an ancestor of A. afarensis, which includes the specimen of a female, dubbed ‘Lucy’, found at Laetoli in Tanzania. In 2008 came the discovery of the first fossil skeleton of A. sediba, which lived around 1.9 mya. Australopithecus and related genera are known as australopithecines.