Untitled Document Climate Change and The Dawn of Man Australopithecus and a closely related genus Paranthropus. When on the ground they walked upright but they were active in trees.
Experts recognize two species of Australopithecus .
A. africanus that occupied southern Africa and A. afarensis which occupied northeastern Africa. These groups of animals did not evolve directly from the apes but they were intermediate in form between apes and humans. Australopithecus resembled apes in having front teeth that were large in relation to the size of their molars. The animal fed largely on coarse food, probably fruits an seed pods. These have been extremely fruitful localities for recovering early hominid remains.