Read and study the following passage about Australopithecus. Then go to the Quia game links and play first the vocabulary game then the review game. Take the Quia Quiz. When you have successfully answered all the questions in the games and quiz, you will enter the Inspiration site and study the outline for Australopithecus. The outline will become your "notes" for the final test. As we progress through this unit, you will complete more and more of the Inspiration outlines yourselves.
AUSTRALOPITHECUS
Australopithecus is the earliest species of hominid. An hominid is an early ancestor of the modern human, you. It is believed that modern man got his start on the continent of Africa. At first Australopitheci (pural form of Australopithecus) were largely tree dwellers, coming down to the ground only when necessary. They were able to find food and protection from predators in the trees. The climate began to change in Africa. Drought caused trees to give way to savannahs, large open plains. Hominids were forced out of the dwindling trees onto land. Those who became bipedal survived. Bipedal means to walk on two feet.
 This adaptation to bipedalism aided their survival in several ways. Because they were taller they could see farther, thus avoiding predators more quickly. Their height also helped them find food sources at greater distances. Their upright bodies cooled better in the hot climate. Their hands were free to do other jobs. Their brain developed along with this new manual dexterity.
Australopitheci lived on open savannahs in Africa. They had no hunting skills, instead they foraged, or searched, for food.
Their diet consisted of fruits, nuts, tubers (roots) and insects. If they ate meat at all, it was in the form of carrion, rotting corpses of animals hunted down and left by four legged predators. They had no tool making skills, yet did make use of their hands and sticks to help them pick their food and dig up insects.
In appearance, Australopitheci were small and apelike. They had powerful jaws and teeth so they could chew the tough, raw foods that they ate. 
They also had strong digestive systems so that eating rotton meat did not make them sick.
We know they existed through the many fossil finds discovered. Fossils are traces of plants or animals preserved in rock. Australopitheci existed mostly in the Rift Valley of Africa. Major sites there include Omo, Koobi Fora, Laetoli and Olduvai Gorge. Anthropologists Louis and Mary Leaky discovered a series of footprints left in volcanic ash at Laetoli.
This proved beyond a doubt that Australopithecus was bipedal. Donald Johanson discovered "Lucy", an almost complete Australopithecene skeleton showing the size, pelvic and skull shape.
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