They appear to fit the classification of an intermediate form. They are bipedal and have similar dental structure to modern humans, but with a significant reduction in brain size - only slightly larger than modern apes.
Australopithecus africanus
Homo erectus coexisted with several species of australopithecines including Australopithecus afarensis, Australopithecus africanus, and possibly Australopithecus garhi. These australopithecines lived before the appearance of Homo erectus and were part of the evolutionary lineage that eventually led to humans.
Austrapithecus (australopithecines)
Intermediate species forms, yes. A the taxa level, no. Still, not all taxa evidence is supportive of punctuation and stasis. Punctuated equilibrium is only one explanation of how evolution occurs in some species, not all species. The little shellies evidence gradualist processes very well.
The order in which these species appeared on Earth is australopithecines, homo habilis, homo erectus, neanderthals, and finally homo sapiens. Each of these species represents different stages of human evolution, with homo sapiens being the most recent and the only surviving species.
The kinds of evidence that indicates how closely species are related are evidence of DNA and protein structure.
acylium ion
The reasons for the extinction of australopithecines are not definitively known. Factors such as environmental changes, competition from other hominid species, and potential diseases or natural disasters could have played a role in their extinction. It is likely a combination of these factors that led to their eventual disappearance.
The first species believed to have walked upright on two legs is Australopithecus afarensis, with the most famous example being the fossil "Lucy" discovered in Ethiopia. This early hominin species lived approximately 3.9-2.9 million years ago.
None.
No. There is no evidence that one species has ever evolved into another species, even over long periods of time. Charles Darwin thought that there was no reason why bears could not evolve into whales: "I can see no difficulty in a race of bears being rendered, by natural selection, more and more aquatic in their structure and habits, with larger and larger mouths, till a creature was produced as monstrous as a whale" -- The Origin of Species But then Darwin was worried because there are no intermediary forms of one species changing to another in the fossil record. Darwin also said: "Why, if species have descended from other species by fine gradations, do we not everywhere see innumerable transitional forms? Why is not all nature in confusion, instead of the species being, as we see them, well defined?… But, as by this theory innumerable transitional forms must have existed, why do we not find them embedded in countless numbers in the crust of the earth?… But in the intermediate region, having intermediate conditions of life, why do we not now find closely-linking intermediate varieties? This difficulty for a long time quite confounded me."
Ardipithecus ramidus, dating back around 4.4 million years ago, is believed to be one of the first hominids to walk upright. This species shows evidence of both tree-climbing adaptations and bipedal characteristics, marking an important transition in hominid evolution.