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Australopithecus (Australopithecus, from the Latin «australis», from the south, and from the Greek «πίθηκος» pithekos, monkey) are an extinct genus of hominid primates. Species of this genus inhabited Africa for just over 3.9 million years ago until about 2 million years ago, from Zancliense (Lower Pliocene) to Gelasiense (Lower Pleistocene). The greatest novelty contributed by the Australopithecus is that they were traveling bipedically. The size of his brain was similar to that of today's great apes. They lived in tropical areas of Africa, feeding on fruits and leaves. There is consensus that the Australopithecines played an essential role in human evolution as it was one of the species of this genus that gave rise to the Homo genus in Africa about 2 million years ago, which in turn gave rise to the Homo species habilis, H. ergaster and finally the modern man, H. sapiens sapiens.
A branch of the australopithecines separated from the one that would derive in Homo sapiens, producing the Paranthropus robustus of the now accepted genus Paranthropus.
