Australopithecus was an early genus of humans from savannas and open woodlands in east Africa from the middle Pliocene to the early Pleistocene. They stood upright, and may have walked much like a modern human. They were clearly not as adept of climbers as modern apes, but the degree to which they had lost their climbing adaptations is disputed. They would not have made tools except in the most rudimentary fashion, but probably occasionally used sticks, rocks, or other opportunistic elements of their environment to help them accomplish tasks at about the same level as modern great apes. They did not use fire. Their diet may have been made up of tubers, nuts, fruit, seeds, and the occasional small animal.