Paranthropus boisei


This page was last updated on April 16th, 1999.


Paranthropus boisei was discovered in 1959 by Mary Leakey at Olduvai Gorge. At first, it was named Zinjanthropus and believed it to be the maker of the Oldowan stone tools. It was later designated as Australopithecus boisei, when scientists finally realized its minimal distinction from the other australopithecine fossils. Now, it is classified as Paranthropus boisei, due to the recent separation between the robust and gracile australopithecines.

P. boisei lived from 2.6 to 1.2 million years ago. Its average brain size was approximately 530 cc. Like P. robustus, it had a sagittal crest, prominent zygomatics, a large jaw, huge molars, a sloping forehead, and a V-shaped dental arcade. The main difference between the two was that P. boisei's robust features were even more pronounced than those of P. robustus. For example, its molars measured more than 2 cm in diameter, Ours' is only around 1 cm. You could call it a "hyper-robustus" species.

While some scientists believe P. robustus to have been the ancestor of P. boisei, others point out the strong ancestor-descendant relationship seen between P. aethiopicus and P. boisei, and reason that the former gave rise to the latter. As mentioned earlier, the arrival of P. aethiopicus completely muddled paleoanthropologists' previous theories of the early evolution of the hominid family.


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Introduction | History and Background | Ardipithecus ramidus | Australopithecus anamensis | Australopithecus afarensis | Australopithecus africanus | Paranthropus aethiopicus | Paranthropus robustus | Paranthropus boisei | Homo rudolfensis | Homo habilis | Homo ergaster | Homo erectus | Homo heidelbergensis | Homo neanderthalensis | Homo sapiens | Bibliography | Glossary