Talk:Australopithecines

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Confusingly, the term Australopithecine can refer to either Australopithecus or Paranthropus. Although I'm not sure Ardipithecus should be included here. I'll have to double-check that.--Doddy 12:19, 12 December 2007 (UTC)

Ardipithecines are not Australopithecines and refer to early putative hominins. Their species include ramidus and the earlier kadabba. Paraanthropus- "beside man" is so called as it generally refers to the hominins that branched off our lineage;the robust australopithecines, boisei, robustus and the earlier aethiopicus.If the later is as some scholars suspect, the progenitor of the other two species then the clade may be a seperate genus hence paranthropus. However since robustus is primarily found in south africa in the absence of the other species this had led to speculation that it actually derives fom A. africanus. If this is the case then the robust australopithecines are not a phylogentically distinct group and are an example of plesiomorphy. Since in this interpreation of the fossil record allows two different robust progenitors, thy are not a clade of their own and thus are not a distinct genus and fall under the general heading of Australopithecines. Differing interpretations lead authors to refer to the robusts as either of these genus names.