Over 4 million years ago, bipedal hominids, known as australopithecines and paranthropus, emerged. The oldest known species, Australopithecus anamensis, was discovered at Kanapoi in Kenya’s Lake Turkana region and dates back 4.2 million years. Around 3.5 million years ago, australopithecines evolved into various species to adapt to diverse lifestyles in the African wooded savannahs, unlike paranthropus, which went extinct without likely leaving any descendants. Among the most well-known australopithecine groups are:

• Australopithecus Deyiremeda in East Africa, north of Ethiopia, (between 5 and 3.3 million years ago); Australopithecus Afarensis in Ethiopia (3.4 to 3 million years ago), represented by Dinknesh (Lucy) and footprints, testifying to the acquisition of bipedal walking at the Laetoli site in Tanzania; Kenyantropus Platyops (or flat-faced man from Kenya), dated between 3.5 and 3 million years ago; Paranyhropus Aethiopicus (between 3.5 and 1 million years ago), in the Omo Valley (Ethiopia); Paranthropus Boise ex Zinjanthropus Boise (1.8 million years ago) at Olduvai Gorges (Tanzania); Australopithecus Garhi, dated at around 2.5 million years ago in Ethiopia.
• Australopithecus Bahrelghazali or Abel in Central Africa discovered in Chad, estimated to be between 3.5 and 3 million years.
• australipthecus africanus in Southern Africa (3.2 to 2.4 million years old), including Taung’s child discovered in South Africa and Plesianthropus Transvaalensis nicknamed “Miss Ples” in the Sterkfontein deposit; Australopithecus Sediba, dated at 1.97 million years old, in the Malapa cave; Parantrhopus Robustus (between 2 and 1 million years old in Swartkrans and in the Kromdraai cave in the Gauteng province of South Africa.