Australopithecus

The genus Australopithecus is a collection of hominin species that span the time period from 4.18 to about 2 million years ago. Australopiths were terrestrial bipedal ape-like animals that had large chewing teeth. Their brains were only slightly larger than those of great apes today. They are the closest known relatives of our genus Homo, and we most likely evolved from a species that was part of this adaptive radiation.