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The australopithecines (), formally Australopithecina or Hominina, are generally any species in the related Genus of Australopithecus and Paranthropus. It may also include members of Kenyanthropus, Ardipithecus, and Australopithecus. The term comes from a former classification as members of a distinct subfamily, the Australopithecinae. They are classified within the Australopithecina subtribe of the Hominini tribe. These related species are sometimes collectively termed australopithecines, australopiths, or homininians. They are the extinct, close relatives of modern humans and, together with the extant genus Homo, comprise the human clade. There is no general agreement to whether australopithecines are closest relatives of modern humans, as it has been argued that they are more closely related to extant African apes. Members of the human clade, i.e. the Hominini after the split from the chimpanzees, are called Hominina ( see Hominidae; terms "hominids" and hominins).
While none of the groups normally directly assigned to this group survived, the australopithecines do not appear to be literally extinct (in the sense of having no living descendants) as the genera Kenyanthropus, Paranthropus, and Homo probably emerged as sisters of a late Australopithecus species such as A. africanus and/or A. sediba.
The terms australopithecines, et. al., come from a former classification as members of a distinct subfamily, the Australopithecinae. Members of Australopithecus are sometimes referred to as the "gracile australopithecines", while Paranthropus are called the "robust australopithecines".
The australopithecines occurred in the Late Miocene sub-epoch and were bipedal, and they were dentally similar to humans, but with a brain size not much larger than that of modern non-human , with lesser encephalization than in the genus Homo. Humans (genus Homo) may have descended from australopithecine ancestors and the genera Ardipithecus, Orrorin, Sahelanthropus, and Graecopithecus are the possible ancestors of the australopithecines.
Marc Verhaegen has argued that an australopithecine species could have also been ancestral to the genus Pan (i.e. chimpanzees).
In 1957, an Early Pleistocene Chinese fossil tooth of unknown province was described as resembling P. robustus. Three fossilized molars from Jianshi County, China (Longgudong Cave) were later identified as belonging to an Australopithecus species. However further examination questioned this interpretation; Zhang (1984) argued the Jianshi teeth and unidentified tooth belong to H. erectus. Liu et al. (2010) also dispute the Jianshi–australopithecine link and argue the Jianshi molars fall within the range of Homo erectus:
However, Wolpoff (1999) notes that in China "persistent claims of australopithecine or australopithecine-like remains continue".
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