Australopithecus afarensis© "Australopithecus afarensis" by Rod Waddington is licensed under BY-SA 2.0. Natural history is a difficult thing to conceptualize. You’ve got eons of undocumented progress, ...

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A new study led by paleoanthropologists reveals that Lucy's species Australopithecus afarensis had an ape-like brain. However, the protracted brain growth suggests that -- as is the case in humans -- ...

Some 3.3 million years ago, a three-year-old girl died in present day Ethiopia, in an area called Dikika. Dubbed "Lucy's Baby", she provides researchers with a unique account of our past. Her ...

"I imagine there might be some though who will be skeptical -- as is always the case." Their argument centers on a timeline: The oldest known Homo fossil, a jawbone, is dated at 2.8 million years old, ...

Ancient foot bones from a recently discovered pre-human species, which had opposable big toes like a gorilla's, could shed light on how the ancestors of humanity came to walk upright, researchers say.

By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Scientists have solved the mystery of 3.4 million-year-old fossils called the "Burtele Foot" discovered in Ethiopia in 2009, finding they belonged to an enigmatic ...

The species Australopithecus afarensis inhabited East Africa more than three million years ago, and occupies a key position in the hominin family tree, as it is widely accepted to be ancestral to all ...