Definition of "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.

1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 28

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.

2003, Bill Bryson, A Short History of Nearly Everything, BCA, published 2003, page 391

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.

2011, Chris Stringer, The Origin of Our Species, Penguin, published 2012, page 151