Paranthropus boisei or Australopithecus boisei was an early hominin, described as the largest of the Paranthropus genus (robust australopithecines). It lived in Eastern Africa during the Pleistocene epoch from about 2.3 until about 1.2 million years ago.
Discovery
First discovered by anthropologist Mary Leakey on July 17, 1959, at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania, the well-preserved cranium (nicknamed "Nutcracker Man") was dated to 1.75 million years ago and had characteristics distinctive of the robust australopithecines. Mary and her husband Louis Leakey classified the find as Zinjanthropus boisei: "Zinj" for the medieval East African region of Zanj, "anthropus" (Gr. ανθρωπος, anthropos) for "human being", and "boisei" for Charles Boise, the anthropologist team’s benefactor.
Paranthropus boisei (as the species was eventually categorized) proved to be a treasure, especially when the anthropologists' son Richard Leakey suggested it was the first hominin species to use stone tools. Bernard Wood of the University of Liverpool, England, posits that tools discovered in Ethiopia and dated to 2.5 million years ago could have been made by Paranthropus boisei. A well-preserved jaw, known as the Peninj Mandible, was found by Richard's colleague Kamoya Kimeu in 1964 in Peninj, Tanzania. Another skull, specimen KNM ER 406, was unearthed in 1969 by Richard at Koobi Fora near Lake Turkana, in Kenya.
A trackway of footprints scientists hypothesize were created by a Paranthropus boisei individual ... The track-making species Homo erectus and Paranthropus boisei are on two different branches of the hominin family tree.
A 3D computerized model of the surface of the area near Lake Turkana in Kenya shows fossil footprints of Paranthropus boisei (vertical footprints) with separate footprints of Homo erectus forming a perpendicular path.
The two species are believed to be Homo erectus, a direct ancestor of us modern humans, and Paranthropus boisei, a more distant relative from a different branch of evolution that disappeared a few hundred thousand years after these footprints.
Scientists previously knew from fossil remains that these two extinct branches of the human evolutionary tree—called Homo erectus and Paranthropus boisei—lived about the same time in the Turkana Basin. But dating fossils is not exact ... H ... Kevin G ... DOI ... H.
The muddy footprints of homo erectus and paranthropus boisei ... In the study, the authors explained how they had been looking at footprints from other creatures before discovering the footprints of homo erectus and paranthropus boisei.
While one set of tracks belonged to an ancient primate, Paranthropus boisei, the other footprints were left behind by three Homo erectus individuals, an archaic human species, researchers believe.
This is the first proof that Paranthropus boisei and Homo erectus lived in the same area and crossed paths ... Paranthropus boisei, the more distantly related to modern humans of the two, lived from ...
Hatala's team attributed the footprints to Paranthropus boisei and Homo erectus, two types of hominins, the group consisting of our human lineage and closely related species. Paranthropus boisei had ...
-Paranthropus boisei- (Nutcracker Man) and -Homo erectus-, a human ancestor.The prints indicate one individual walked at a moderately fast pace ... what scientists expect from -Paranthropus boisei-.
A trackway of footprints scientists hypothesize were created by a Paranthropus boisei individual ... The track-making species Homo erectus and Paranthropus boisei are on two different branches of the hominin family tree.
In a groundbreaking discovery, footprints from 1.5 million years ago have revealed that Homo erectus and Paranthropus boisei coexisted in Kenya. The fossilised tracks, found at Koobi Fora, show... .
This is the first time ever that scientists have been able to say that Homo erectus and Paranthropus boisei—one our likely ancestor and the other a more distant relative—actually coexisted at the same time and place.
The results of the study also state the presence of arboreal locomotion in Australopithecus sediba—a still little-known species—and in Paranthropus boisei, a fossil hominin that has aroused a certain ...
The footprints belonging to the Paranthropus boisei, a bipedal primate with smaller brains and wide, flat faces with massive teeth, and Homo erectus, which more closely resemble modern humans and are thought to be our direct ancestors.
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02 Dec 2024
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02 Dec 2024