Paranthropus
Encyclopedia
The robust australopithecines, members of the extinct hominin genus Paranthropus (from Greek
παρα, para "beside"; άνθρωπος, ánthropos "human"), were bipedal hominids that probably descended from the gracile australopithecine hominids (Australopithecus). They are characterised by robust craniodental anatomy, including gorilla-like cranial crests
, which suggest strong muscles of mastication
.
All species of Paranthropus were bipedal, and many lived during a time when species of the genus Homo
(which were possibly descended from Australopithecus), were prevalent. Paranthropus first appeared roughly 2.7 million years ago. Most species of Paranthropus had a brain
about 40 percent of the size of a modern human
. There was some size variation between the different species of Paranthropus, but most stood roughly 1.3-1.4 m (4 ft 3 in to 4 ft 7 in) tall and were quite well muscled. Paranthropus is thought to have lived in wooded areas rather than the grasslands of the Australopithecus.
The behavior of Paranthropus was quite different from that of the genus Homo, in that it was not as adaptable to its environment or as resourceful. Evidence of this exists in the form of its physiology which was specifically tailored to a diet of grubs and plants. This would have made it more reliant on favorable environmental conditions than members of the genus Homo, such as Homo habilis
, which would eat a much wider variety of foods. Therefore, due to poor adaptation, Paranthropus boisei/ Robust Australopithecus died out leaving no descendants.
notes "perhaps several different species" of robust hominids, and "as usual their affinities, and the exact number of species, are hotly disputed. Names that have been attached to various of these creatures...are Australopithecus (or Paranthropus) robustus, Australopithecus (or Paranthropus or Zinjanthropus) boisei, and Australopithecus (or Paranthropus) aethiopicus." Opinions differ whether the species P. aethiopicus, P. boisei and P. robustus should be included within the genus Australopithecus
. The emergence of the robusts could be either a display of divergent or convergent evolution. There is currently no consensus in the scientific community whether P. aethiopicus, P. boisei and P. robustus should be placed into a distinct genus, Paranthropus, which is believed to have evolved from the ancestral Australopithecus line. Up until the last half-decade, the majority of the scientific community included all the species of both Australopithecus and Paranthropus in a single genus. Currently, both taxonomic systems are used and accepted in the scientific community. However, although Australopithecus robustus and Paranthropus robustus are used interchangeably for the same specimens, some researchers, beginning with Robert Broom, and continuing with people such as Bernard A. Wood, think that there is a difference between Australopithecus and Paranthropus, and that there should be two genera. On Wikipedia, this approach is utilised, and for the sake of consistency, the genus Paranthropus is used for all articles which mention the species P. aethiopicus
P. boisei
and P. robustus
. Although the many similarities with Gorillas were readily noted in the original papers describing Paranthropus discoveries, the logical conclusion that they could be Gorillas ancestors (see Homininae
) was not proposed.
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, yet 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
. Australopithecus afarensis and A. anamensis had, for the most part, disappeared by this time. There were also significant morphological differences between Australopithecus and Paranthropus, although the differences were found on the cranial remains. The postcranial remains were still very similar. Paranthropus was more massively built craniodentally and tended to sport gorilla
-like sagittal crest
s on the cranium which anchored massive temporalis muscles of mastication.
, South Africa, indicate that the hand of Paranthropus robustus was also adapted for precision grasping and tool use.
Most Paranthropus species seem almost certainly not to have used language
nor to have controlled fire
, although they are directly associated with the latter at Swartkrans.
(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 has been excavated since 1993 by Francis Thackeray of the Transvaal Museum. A date of at least 1.95 million years has been obtained for Kromdraai B.
Paranthropus boisei was discovered by Mary Leakey
on July 17, 1959, at the FLK Bed I site of Olduvai Gorge
in Tanzania
(specimen OH 5
). Mary was working alone, as Louis was ill in camp. She rushed back to camp and at the news Louis made a remarkable recovery. They refrained from excavating until Des Bartlett had photographed the site.
In his notes Louis recorded a first name, Titanohomo mirabilis, reflecting an initial impression of close human affinity. Louis and Mary began to call it "Dear Boy". Recovery was halted on August 7. Dear Boy was in context with Oldowan tools and animal bones.
The fossil was published in Nature dated August 15, 1959, but due to a strike of the printers the issue was not released until September. In it Louis placed the fossil in Broom
's Australopithecinae family, creating a new genus for it, Zinjanthropus, species 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
.
Broom had died in 1951 but Dart
was still living. He is said to have wept for joy on Louis' behalf on being personally shown Zinj, which Louis and Mary carried around in a tin (later a box). 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 canines.
At that time palaeoanthropology was in an overall mood to lump and was preaching against splitting. Consequently, the presentation of Zinj during the Fourth Pan-African Congress of Prehistorians in July in the then Belgian Congo
, at which Louis was forced to read the delayed Nature article, nearly came to grief for Louis over the creation of a new genus. Dart rescued him with the now famous joke, "... what would have happened if Mrs. Ples had met Dear Boy one dark night."
The battle of the name raged on for many years and drove a wedge between Louis and LeGros Clark
, Sir Wilfrid from 1955, 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).
, the daughter-in-law of the Mary and Louis Leakey.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_evolution
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
παρα, para "beside"; άνθρωπος, ánthropos "human"), were bipedal hominids that probably descended from the gracile australopithecine hominids (Australopithecus). They are characterised by robust craniodental anatomy, including gorilla-like cranial crests
Sagittal crest
A sagittal crest is a ridge of bone running lengthwise along the midline of the top of the skull of many mammalian and reptilian skulls, among others....
, which suggest strong muscles of mastication
Muscles of mastication
During mastication, four muscles of mastication are responsible for adduction and lateral motion of the jaw. Other muscles, usually associated with the hyoid such as the sternohyomastoid, are responsible for opening the jaw.-Muscles:*The masseter...
.
Description
Homo (genus)
Homo is the genus that includes modern humans and species closely related to them. The genus is estimated to be about 2.3 to 2.4 million years old, evolving from australopithecine ancestors with the appearance of Homo habilis....
(which were possibly descended from Australopithecus), were prevalent. Paranthropus first appeared roughly 2.7 million years ago. Most species of Paranthropus had a brain
Brain
The brain is the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals—only a few primitive invertebrates such as sponges, jellyfish, sea squirts and starfishes do not have one. It is located in the head, usually close to primary sensory apparatus such as vision, hearing,...
about 40 percent of the size of a modern human
Human
Humans are the only living species in the Homo genus...
. There was some size variation between the different species of Paranthropus, but most stood roughly 1.3-1.4 m (4 ft 3 in to 4 ft 7 in) tall and were quite well muscled. Paranthropus is thought to have lived in wooded areas rather than the grasslands of the Australopithecus.
The behavior of Paranthropus was quite different from that of the genus Homo, in that it was not as adaptable to its environment or as resourceful. Evidence of this exists in the form of its physiology which was specifically tailored to a diet of grubs and plants. This would have made it more reliant on favorable environmental conditions than members of the genus Homo, such as Homo habilis
Homo habilis
Homo habilis is a species of the genus Homo, which lived from approximately at the beginning of the Pleistocene period. The discovery and description of this species is credited to both Mary and Louis Leakey, who found fossils in Tanzania, East Africa, between 1962 and 1964. Homo habilis Homo...
, which would eat a much wider variety of foods. Therefore, due to poor adaptation, Paranthropus boisei/ Robust Australopithecus died out leaving no descendants.
Disputed taxonomy
Evolutionary Biologist Richard DawkinsRichard Dawkins
Clinton Richard Dawkins, FRS, FRSL , known as Richard Dawkins, is a British ethologist, evolutionary biologist and author...
notes "perhaps several different species" of robust hominids, and "as usual their affinities, and the exact number of species, are hotly disputed. Names that have been attached to various of these creatures...are Australopithecus (or Paranthropus) robustus, Australopithecus (or Paranthropus or Zinjanthropus) boisei, and Australopithecus (or Paranthropus) aethiopicus." Opinions differ whether the species P. aethiopicus, P. boisei and P. robustus should be included within the genus Australopithecus
Australopithecus
Australopithecus is a genus of hominids that is now extinct. From the evidence gathered by palaeontologists and archaeologists, it appears that the Australopithecus genus evolved in eastern Africa around 4 million years ago before spreading throughout the continent and eventually becoming extinct...
. The emergence of the robusts could be either a display of divergent or convergent evolution. There is currently no consensus in the scientific community whether P. aethiopicus, P. boisei and P. robustus should be placed into a distinct genus, Paranthropus, which is believed to have evolved from the ancestral Australopithecus line. Up until the last half-decade, the majority of the scientific community included all the species of both Australopithecus and Paranthropus in a single genus. Currently, both taxonomic systems are used and accepted in the scientific community. However, although Australopithecus robustus and Paranthropus robustus are used interchangeably for the same specimens, some researchers, beginning with Robert Broom, and continuing with people such as Bernard A. Wood, think that there is a difference between Australopithecus and Paranthropus, and that there should be two genera. On Wikipedia, this approach is utilised, and for the sake of consistency, the genus Paranthropus is used for all articles which mention the species P. aethiopicus
Paranthropus aethiopicus
Paranthropus aethiopicus is an extinct species of hominid. The finding discovered in 1985 by Alan Walker in West Turkana, Kenya, KNM WT 17000 , is one of the earliest examples of robust pliocene hominids...
P. boisei
Paranthropus boisei
Paranthropus boisei was an early hominin and described as the largest of the Paranthropus species...
and P. robustus
Paranthropus robustus
Paranthropus robustus was originally discovered in Southern Africa in 1938. The development of P. robustus, namely in cranial features, seemed to be aimed in the direction of a "heavy-chewing complex"...
. Although the many similarities with Gorillas were readily noted in the original papers describing Paranthropus discoveries, the logical conclusion that they could be Gorillas ancestors (see Homininae
Homininae
Homininae is a subfamily of Hominidae, which includes humans, gorillas and chimpanzees, and some extinct relatives; it comprises all those hominids, such as Australopithecus, that arose after the split from orangutans . Our family tree, which has 3 main branches leading to chimpanzees, humans and...
) was not proposed.
Occurrence
Australopithecus afarensis
Australopithecus afarensis is an extinct hominid that lived between 3.9 and 2.9 million years ago. A. afarensis was slenderly built, like the younger Australopithecus africanus. It is thought that A...
, A. africanus
Australopithecus africanus
Australopithecus africanus was an early hominid, an australopithecine, who lived between 2–3 million years ago in the Pliocene. In common with the older Australopithecus afarensis, A. africanus was slenderly built, or gracile, and was thought to have been a direct ancestor of modern humans. Fossil...
, and A. anamensis
Australopithecus anamensis
Australopithecus anamensis is a stem-human species that lived approximately four million years ago. Nearly one hundred fossil specimens are known from Kenya and Ethiopia, representing over 20 individuals.- Discovery :...
either disappeared from the fossil record before the appearance of early humans or seem to have been the ancestors of Homo habilis, yet 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
Homo ergaster
Homo ergaster is an extinct chronospecies of Homo that lived in eastern and southern Africa during the early Pleistocene, about 2.5–1.7 million years ago.There is still disagreement on the subject of the classification, ancestry, and progeny of H...
, and possibly even H. erectus
Homo erectus
Homo erectus is an extinct species of hominid that lived from the end of the Pliocene epoch to the later Pleistocene, about . The species originated in Africa and spread as far as India, China and Java. There is still disagreement on the subject of the classification, ancestry, and progeny of H...
. Australopithecus afarensis and A. anamensis had, for the most part, disappeared by this time. There were also significant morphological differences between Australopithecus and Paranthropus, although the differences were found on the cranial remains. The postcranial remains were still very similar. Paranthropus was more massively built craniodentally and tended to sport gorilla
Gorilla
Gorillas are the largest extant species of primates. They are ground-dwelling, predominantly herbivorous apes that inhabit the forests of central Africa. Gorillas are divided into two species and either four or five subspecies...
-like sagittal crest
Sagittal crest
A sagittal crest is a ridge of bone running lengthwise along the midline of the top of the skull of many mammalian and reptilian skulls, among others....
s on the cranium which anchored massive temporalis muscles of mastication.
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 or contemporaneous Homo. Most believe that early Homo was the tool maker, but hand fossils from SwartkransSwartkrans
Swartkrans is a location in South Africa, around from Johannesburg.Swartkrans is a farm near to Sterkfontein, notable for being extremely rich in archaeological material, particularly hominid remains. It was purchased by the University of the Witwatersrand in 1968...
, South Africa, indicate that the hand of Paranthropus robustus was also adapted for precision grasping and tool use.
Most Paranthropus species seem almost certainly not to have used language
Language
Language may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication...
nor to have controlled fire
Fire
Fire is the rapid oxidation of a material in the chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction products. Slower oxidative processes like rusting or digestion are not included by this definition....
, although they are directly associated with the latter at Swartkrans.
Discovery
A partial cranium and mandible of Paranthropus robustus was discovered in 1938 by a schoolboy, Gert Terblanche, at Kromdraai BKromdraai fossil site
Kromdraai is a fossil-bearing breccia filled cave located about 2 km east of the well known South African hominid-bearing site of Sterkfontein and about 45 km Northwest of the City of Johannesburg, South Africa...
(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 has been excavated since 1993 by Francis Thackeray of the Transvaal Museum. A date of at least 1.95 million years has been obtained for Kromdraai B.
Paranthropus boisei was discovered by Mary Leakey
Mary Leakey
Mary Leakey was a British archaeologist and anthropologist, who discovered the first skull of a fossil ape on Rusinga Island and also a noted robust Australopithecine called Zinjanthropus at Olduvai. For much of her career she worked together with her husband, Louis Leakey, in Olduvai Gorge,...
on July 17, 1959, at the FLK Bed I site of Olduvai Gorge
Olduvai Gorge
The Olduvai Gorge is a steep-sided ravine in the Great Rift Valley that stretches through eastern Africa. It is in the eastern Serengeti Plains in northern Tanzania and is about long. It is located 45 km from the Laetoli archaeological site...
in Tanzania
Tanzania
The United Republic of Tanzania is a country in East Africa bordered by Kenya and Uganda to the north, Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west, and Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique to the south. The country's eastern borders lie on the Indian Ocean.Tanzania is a state...
(specimen OH 5
OH 5
OH 5 is a fossilized cranium and the holotype of the species Paranthropus boisei. It was discovered in Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania, by archaeologist-paleontologist Mary Leakey in 1959...
). Mary was working alone, as Louis was ill in camp. She rushed back to camp and at the news Louis made a remarkable recovery. They refrained from excavating until Des Bartlett had photographed the site.
In his notes Louis recorded a first name, Titanohomo mirabilis, reflecting an initial impression of close human affinity. Louis and Mary began to call it "Dear Boy". Recovery was halted on August 7. Dear Boy was in context with Oldowan tools and animal bones.
The fossil was published in Nature dated August 15, 1959, but due to a strike of the printers the issue was not released until September. In it Louis placed the fossil in Broom
Robert Broom
Professor Robert Broom was a Scottish South African doctor and paleontologist. He qualified as a medical practitioner in 1895 and received his DSc in 1905 from the University of Glasgow...
's Australopithecinae family, creating a new genus for it, Zinjanthropus, species 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
Australopithecus
Australopithecus is a genus of hominids that is now extinct. From the evidence gathered by palaeontologists and archaeologists, it appears that the Australopithecus genus evolved in eastern Africa around 4 million years ago before spreading throughout the continent and eventually becoming extinct...
.
Broom had died in 1951 but Dart
Raymond Dart
Raymond Arthur Dart was an Australian anatomist and anthropologist, best known for his involvement in the 1924 discovery of the first fossil ever found of Australopithecus africanus, an extinct hominid closely related to humans, at Taung in the North of South Africa in the province...
was still living. He is said to have wept for joy on Louis' behalf on being personally shown Zinj, which Louis and Mary carried around in a tin (later a box). 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 canines.
At that time palaeoanthropology was in an overall mood to lump and was preaching against splitting. Consequently, the presentation of Zinj during the Fourth Pan-African Congress of Prehistorians in July in the then Belgian Congo
Belgian Congo
The Belgian Congo was the formal title of present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo between King Leopold II's formal relinquishment of his personal control over the state to Belgium on 15 November 1908, and Congolese independence on 30 June 1960.-Congo Free State, 1884–1908:Until the latter...
, at which Louis was forced to read the delayed Nature article, nearly came to grief for Louis over the creation of a new genus. Dart rescued him with the now famous joke, "... what would have happened if Mrs. Ples had met Dear Boy one dark night."
The battle of the name raged on for many years and drove a wedge between Louis and LeGros Clark
Wilfrid Le Gros Clark
Sir Wilfrid Edward Le Gros Clark was a British anatomist surgeon, primatologist and palaeoanthropologist, today best remembered for his contribution to the study of human evolution....
, Sir Wilfrid from 1955, who took the Paranthropus view. On the other hand it brought the Leakeys and Dr. Melville Bell Grosvenor
Melville Bell Grosvenor
Melville Bell Grosvenor was the president of the National Geographic Society and editor of National Geographic Magazine from 1957 to 1969...
of the National Geographic Society
National Geographic Society
The National Geographic Society , headquartered in Washington, D.C. in the United States, is one of the largest non-profit scientific and educational institutions in the world. Its interests include geography, archaeology and natural science, the promotion of environmental and historical...
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).
Life Style
In 2011 Thure E. Cerling of the University of Utah and colleagues, published a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of their work with the carbon in the enamel of 24 teeth from 22 Paranthropus individuals who lived in East Africa between 1.4 million and 1.9 million years ago. One type of carbon is produced from tree leaves, nuts and fruit, another from grasses and grasslike plants called sedges. Their results reveal that Paranthropus boisei contrary to previous theories, did not eat nuts but dined more heavily on grasses than any other human ancestor or human relative studied to date. Only an extinct species of grass-eating baboon ate more. One of the co-authors of the paper is Meave LeakeyMeave Leakey
Meave G. Leakey is together with her husband Richard Leakey one of the most renowned contemporary paleontologists. She studies the origin of mankind in Africa.-Flat-Faced Man of Kenya:...
, the daughter-in-law of the Mary and Louis Leakey.
See also
- Cranial capacityCranial capacityCranial capacity is a measure of the volume of the interior of the cranium of those vertebrates who have both a cranium and a brain. The most commonly used unit of measure is the cubic centimetre or cc...
- HomininaeHomininaeHomininae is a subfamily of Hominidae, which includes humans, gorillas and chimpanzees, and some extinct relatives; it comprises all those hominids, such as Australopithecus, that arose after the split from orangutans . Our family tree, which has 3 main branches leading to chimpanzees, humans and...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_evolution