Research Paper on:
Gracile and Robust Australopithecines and Dental Patterns

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
The Australopithecines is a group of species believed to be the earliest of the human-like creatures. They lived in Africa between two and four million years ago, and are  quite similar to each other in many respects. The Australopithecines fossils are some of the oldest known of the hominids, which comprise the ancestral family of modern humans and  human-like species. Each of the five (or six) species walked upright on two legs; the five species are grouped into two divisions.  Australopithecus anamensis, A. afarensis and A. africanus comprise the gracile group, the slender ones from which humans have long been believed to have evolved. Two other species, A. boisei,  and A. robustus had much larger jaws and teeth than the species of the gracile group and are referred to the robust group of Australopithecus species. Dental Patterns  Because of these jaw differences, the dental patterns within the two groups create a primary feature on which the five species are classified. Both  gracile and robust species lived in Southern Africa; the others originated in present-day Ethiopia. Those species living in the Southern part of the continent were A. africanus and A.  robustus, members of the gracile and robust groups, respectively. The others were limited to the region of Ethiopia, the place of origin of the earliest known hominid, Ardipithecus ramidus.  Assessing dental stage informs the types of conclusions that researchers can make regarding not only species, but also the developmental stage at the  time of death. Conroy and Vannier (1991) analyzed the dental development stages of six immature A. robustus from Swarktrans "and seven immature Australopithecus africanus individuals from Taung, Sterkfontein, and