The Human Stock

Let us now follow up the series of events which ushered into the world those creatures which because of their distinctive qualities may be regarded as the archetypes of man. These creatures originated probably in various parts of the then surface of the earth and lived for scores of thousands of years. All of them, such as the Australopithecus africanus (Taungs, Bechuanaland), Australopithecus transvaalensis or Plesianthropus (Sterkfontein) and the Paranthropus robustus (Kromdraal, South Africa) ¹ finally died out with the exception of one which had diverged furthest ² from the anthropoids in pre-Miocene times, ³ the genus homo.