Australopithecine

"Life is a gift God gave you." "No, it was my parents who gave me it." "Yes, but who gave it to the first human?" "An australopithecine."

It is as if there were enshrined in these legends a racial memory of the Australopithicines who came close but never did make it to full humanity.

Australopithecines came in several varieties, some slender and gracile, like Raymond Dart's Taung child, others more sturdy and robust, but all were capable of walking upright.

Caspari and Lee carried out comparisons ranging from ancient hominins such as australopithecines through to Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons, assessing the ratios of young adults to old adults.