Australopithecines and the Origin of Man' 



By J. T. Robinson 



Transvaal Museum 

 Pretoria, South Africa 



INTRODUCTION 



The first australopitliecine specimen came into scientific hands 37 

 years ago — the story of this and later discoveries has been told often 

 and will not be repeated here.^ For roughly 30 of those years, con- 

 siderable controversy existed as to the nature of these creatures. In the 

 last few years fairly general agreement has been reached that the 

 australopithecines truly belong with the family of man and not with 

 that of the apes. Emphasis has now shifted to attempts to evaluate 

 the nature of the relationship with true man, and from the early 

 majority view that they were nothing but apes, the pendulum has now 

 swung almost to the other extreme with the rapidly growing tendency 

 to regard them as the earliest true men. The view here presented is 

 less extreme than either of these. 



THE MAJOR PREHOMININE FEATURES 



The australopithecines are roughly intermediate in grade of organi- 

 zation between the small-brained pongids and the large-brained, 

 bipedal homines. They were erect walking, but had small brains. 

 Well over 300 specimens, representing nearly a hundred individuals, 

 are now known from South Africa. A small amount of material is 

 known from East Africa and the Far East. Paleontologically speak- 

 ing, this is a good sample and has provided much information about 

 variation and other population characteristics. This is important 

 since it is not individuals that evolve, but populations, and it is the 

 business of the paleontologist to try to get back from the bits of in- 

 dividuals that comprise his material to the characteristics of the popu- 

 lations to which those individuals belonged. 



1 Reprinted, In expanded form, by permission from the South African Journal of Science, 

 January 1961. 



' For an account of the South African discoveries pertaining to ancient man, see the 

 article by Raymond A. Dart entitled "Cultural Status of the South African Man-apes" In 

 the Smithsonian Report for 1955, p. 317. 



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