Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more. Fossils of early ...

Mandibular ramus morphology on a recently discovered specimen of Australopithecus afarensis closely matches that of gorillas. This finding was unexpected given that chimpanzees are the closest living ...

A new study led by paleoanthropologists reveals that Lucy's species Australopithecus afarensis had an ape-like brain. However, the protracted brain growth suggests that -- as is the case in humans -- ...

Fossils found at the Sterkfontein Caves in South Africa reveal nearly four million years of hominin and environmental evolution. Since research began at the site in 1936 with the discovery, by Robert ...

Scans of eight fossilized adult and infant Australopithecus afarensis skulls reveal a prolonged period of brain growth during development that may have set the stage for extended childhood learning in ...

Things weren’t always so safe on land. Long before Homo sapiens stalked the Earth, ancient hominins like Australopithecus afarensis — Lucy’s kin — took shelter in trees when predators prowled the ...

A newly published study has found that males of some of our earliest known ancestors were significantly larger than females. The pronounced difference in body size present in both Australopithecus ...

The July issue of the American Journal of Adam Gordon presented new research by anthropologist Adam Gordon that re-examined two landmark hominid samples, Australopithecus afarensis and ...

Scientific evidence from the last decade continues to correct the classical model of human origin. Australopithecus Afarensis, the species to which the legendary Lucy belonged, discovered in 1974, was ...

The species Australopithecus afarensis inhabited East Africa more than three million years ago, and occupies a key position in the hominin family tree, as it is widely accepted to be ancestral to all ...