The genus Australopithecus (Latin australis "southern", Greek ðßèçêïò pithekos "ape") is a genus of extinct hominids, made up of the gracile australopiths, and formerly also included their larger relatives, the robust australopiths (which are now given their own genus). The genus Australopithecus is closely related to the human genus Homo, and may be ancestral to it. Pessimist,Wikipedia says: "may be ancestral to it." Why not more definite? Anatomist Zuckerman wrote: “When compared with human and simian [ape] skulls, the Australopithecine skull is in appearance overwhelmingly simian—not human. The contrary proposition could be equated to an assertion that black is white.” . Journal of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, January 1966, p. 93 Similarly Richard Leakey called it “unlikely that our direct ancestors are evolutionary descendants of the australopithecines.” . Origins, p. 86. I would need much stronger evidence than this.
