But the identity of the first toolmaker has been mysterious, because more than one type of hominin was alive 2 million to 3 million years ago: our genus Homo, plus several species of Australopithecus, including A. africanus from South Africa and A. afarensis — the species of the famous skeleton of Lucy, who lived near Gona. (sciencemag.org)
While most paleontologists agree that the discoveries of Homo erectus in 1891 and Australopithecus africanus in 1924 answered Crawfurd's charge, his use of the phrase to describe a common undiscovered ancestor of human and nonhuman primates captured the popular imagination and still hasn't let go. (slate.com)
With this knowledge the scientists turned to newly discovered specimens of Eunotosaurus africanus, a South African species 40 million years older than O. semitestacea that also had distinctively broadened ribs. (sciencedaily.com)