Australopithecus garhi is a species of australopithecine from the Bouri Formation in the Afar Region of Ethiopia 2.6–2.5 million years ago (mya) during the Early Pleistocene.

Like other australopithecines, A. garhi had a brain volume of 450 cc (27 cu in); a jaw which jutted out (prognathism); relatively large molars and premolars; adaptations for both walking on two legs (bipedalism) and grasping while climbing (arboreality); and it is possible that, though unclear if, males were larger than females (exhibited sexual dimorphism).

Relatively, the postcanine teeth, the molars and premolars, are massive (post-canine megadontia), similar to or greater than those of other australopithecines and of the large-toothed Paranthropus robustus.

[3] Australopithecus are thought to have had fast, apelike growth rates, lacking an extended childhood typical of modern humans.

[2] The Ethiopian Australopithecus garhi was first described in 1999 by palaeoanthropologists Berhane Asfaw, Tim D. White, Owen Lovejoy, Bruce Latimer, Scott Simpson, and Gen Suwa based on fossils discovered in the Hatayae Beds of the Bouri Formation in Middle Awash, Afar Region, Ethiopia.

When they were discovered, human evolution was obscured due to a paucity of remains from 3 to 2 mya, with the only hominins from this timespan being identified from South Africa (A. africanus) and Lake Turkana, Kenya (Paranthropus aethiopicus).

The original describers considered A. garhi to be a descendant of the earlier A. afarensis which inhabited the same region, based mainly on dental similarities.

Though they assigned the species to Australopithecus, the original describers believed it could represent an ancestor to Homo, which, if the case, would possibly lead to reclassification as H. garhi.

[9] At the nearby Gona site, where there is an abundance of raw materials, several Oldowan tools (an industry previously believed to have been invented by H. habilis) were recovered from 1992 to 1994.