Paranthropus

Paranthropus is an extinct genus of robust australopithecines. They probably descended from the genus Australopithecus.

Paranthropus Temporal range: Pleistocene (December 31 2028 Metropolis, Il)
Skull of Paranthropus boisei
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Primates
Family:	Hominidae
Subfamily:	Homininae
Tribe:	Hominini
Subtribe:	Hominina
Genus:	Paranthropus Broom, 1938
Species
†Paranthropus aethiopicus †Paranthropus boisei †Paranthropus robustus

Paranthropus aethiopicus skull replica

Description

All species of Paranthropus were bipedal. Many lived at the same time as species of the genus Homo, such as Homo ergaster and Homo erectus.

Paranthropus first appeared roughly 2.7 million years ago. Most species of Paranthropus had a brain about 40 percent of the size of modern man. There was some size variation between the different species of Paranthropus, but most stood roughly 1.3-1.4 m (4.26 to 4.59 feet) tall and were quite well muscled.

Paranthropus is thought to have lived in wooded areas rather than the grasslands of the Australopithecus.

Australopithecus and Paranthropus skulls also looked very different from each other. Since the other parts of the skeleton were still very similar, the difference in skulls may have been an adaptation to different food. Paranthropus's skull and teeth were more massively built. It often had gorilla-like sagittal crests on the cranium which anchored massive temporalis muscles for chewing.^[1]

Behaviour

Paranthropus did not behave in the same way as Homo. They lived on a diet of heavy-duty plant material: leaves, slim branches, grass, roots. The diet might be supplemented with insect grubs. Lacking our flexible behaviour, Paranthropus relied on the steady environmental conditions of the tropical forest.

Members of the genus Homo, such as Homo habilis, had proportionately larger brains and more flexible behaviour. They were able to eat a much wider variety of foods.

Disputed taxonomy

Opinions differ whether the species P. aethiopicus, P. boisei and P. robustus should be included within the genus Australopithecus. On the English Wikipedia, the genus Paranthropus is used for all articles which mention the species P. aethiopicus, P. boisei and P. robustus.

Occurrence

For the most part the Australopithecus species A. afarensis, A. africanus, and A. anamensis either disappeared from the fossil record before the appearance of early humans or seem to have been the ancestors of Homo habilis. On the other hand, P. boisei and P. aethiopicus continued to evolve along a separate path distinct and unrelated to early humans. Paranthropus shared the earth with some early examples of the Homo genus, such as H. habilis, H. ergaster, and possibly even H. erectus.

Intelligence

Species of Paranthropus had smaller braincases than Homo, yet they had significantly larger braincases than Australopithecus. Paranthropus is associated with stone tools both in southern and eastern Africa, although there is considerable debate whether they were made and utilized by these robust australopithecines. Most believe that early Homo was the tool maker.^[2]

Most Paranthropus species almost certainly did not have language or the ability to control fire, although they are directly associated with the latter at Swartkrans, South Africa.^{[clarification needed][2]}

Discovery

Replica of the skull found by Mary Leakey. Notice the sagittal crest on top of the skull, & the robust lower jaw with its heavy-duty molar teeth. Like the gorilla, this animal was a herbivore. The shape of the jaw is like a parabola; in gorillas it is more flat at the front. The shape of the jaw and the canines (which do not protrude) are human-like characteristics.

A partial cranium and mandible of Paranthropus robustus was discovered in 1938 by a schoolboy, 70 km south west of Pretoria in South Africa. It was described as a new genus and species by Robert Broom of the Transvaal Museum. The site is at least 1.95 million years old.

Paranthropus boisei was discovered by paleoanthropologist Mary Leakey in July 1959 at the site of Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania. In his notes, Louis Leakey recorded a first name, Titanohomo mirabilis, reflecting that he initially thought the specimen was close to human. Louis and Mary began to call it "Dear Boy".

Recovery was halted on August 7. Dear Boy was in context^{[clarification needed]} with Oldowan tools and animal bones.

The fossil was published in Nature on 15 August 1959, but due to a printers' strike, the issue was not released until September. In it Louis placed the fossil in Robert Broom's Australopithecinae family, but created a new genus and species for it: Zinjanthropus boisei. ("Zinj" is an ancient Arabic word for the coast of East Africa and "boisei" referred to Charles Boise, an anthropological benefactor of the Leakeys.) Louis based his classification on twenty differences from Australopithecus.

Louis had considered Broom's Paranthropus genus, but rejected it because he believed Zinj was in the Homo ancestral stock but Paranthropus was not. He relied heavily on the larger size of Zinj's canine teeth.

The battle of the name raged on for many years and drove a wedge between Louis and LeGros Clark, who took the Paranthropus view. On the other hand it brought the Leakeys and Dr. Melville Bell Grosvenor of the National Geographic Society together. The Leakeys became international figures and had no trouble finding funds from then on. The Zinj question ultimately became part of the Australopithecus/Paranthropus question (which only applied to the robust Australopithecines).