ABSTRACT
This chapter speculates about the selective forces which brought the australopithecine group into existence, caused adaptive radiation within the group, and resulted in the origin of man. The literature also contains many statements that such and such are Australopithecine characteristics as though all known Australopithecines have the same characteristics. South African Australopithecines are divided into two taxa, Australopithecus africanus Dart and Paranthropus robustus Broom (Robinson 1954a). The two Australopithecines can be separated without the slightest difficulty by means of this tooth; in Australopithecus the crown is large and highly asymmetric, while in Paranthropus the crown is small, more symmetric and with little relief on the lingual surface but the root is substantial. The resistance to accounting for the differences between the Australopithecines by the dietary hypothesis seems to spring from the assumption that they represent a single phyletic line, hence that all known Australopithecines must, willynilly, be very closely related.
