Australopithecus
3.2
million years ago
Now,
double that rewind. You're now 128,000 generations of your family into
the past. Meet your great-whatever-grandfather. This isn't just a thought
experiment—you did have a male
forebear in this period, and he might have resembled this individual.
Your
Ancestor's Profile
Australopiths
are the earliest undisputed members of the human family. Their most standout
advance over their predecessors was the ability to stand on two legs. Their
brains were still small, however, about the size of a modern
chimpanzee's. Lucy, the most famous australopith fossil, designated Australopithecus
afarensis, dates to 3.6 to 2.9 million
years ago. She would have weighed between about 65 and 110 pounds, similar to a
chimp.
