 The genus "Australopithecus" is considered to be a wastebasket taxon, whose members are united by their similar physiology rather than close relations with each other over other hominin genera.As such, the genus is paraphyletic, not consisting of a common ancestor and all of its descendents, and is considered an ancestor to "Homo, Kenyanthropus", and "Paranthropus".Resolving this problem would cause major ramifications in the nomenclature of all descendent species.