Australopithecus Africanus (southern ape of Africa), as reconstructed by paleoartist John Gurche.

Australopithecus Africanus lived about 3.3 to 2.1 million years ago.The first skull (the Taung Child) was found in 1924 and it took more than 20 years for the scientific community to widely accept Australopithecus Africanus as a member of the human family tree.  Often found alongside animal bones, Australopithecus africanus was once considered a “killer ape.”  Now we know that members of this early human species were sometimes eaten by predators.  Living together in groups helped these early humans protect themselves.  This reconstruction by Gurche is based on Sts 5 and 53Sts.

  

  - Sts5 was nicknamed Mrs. Ples (although the skull is now thought to belong to a male) and it was discovered in 1947.

- Dynamite once was used for excavating sites to speed up the process and Sts 5 was blown in two at the time of its extraction from the breccia (a cement-like rock).

Smithsonian Institute's Human Origin Program