Paranthropus aethiopicus - A small-brained mystery
By Eugene M. McCarthy, Ph.D.
The first material assigned to Paranthropus aethiopicus was an edentulous mandible found in 1967 in southern Ethiopia, west of the Omo River by a French expedition led by Camille Arambourg and Yves Coppens (Arambourg and Coppens 1968a, 1968b). This fossil (known as Omo 18) did not generate much interest until the discovery of the Black Skull (KNM-WT 17000) in 1985 (Walker et al. 1986). The skull, which is nearly complete except for the lack of teeth (the tooth roots are, in fact, present), is black because of mineral absorption during fossilization. It was found in Kenya, west of Lake Turkana (Walker et al. 1986). Such a small number of specimens of Paranthropus aethiopicus have been found that little is really known about this hominid beyond the structure and appearance of the cranium. Given the lack of postcranial material, judgments must be based primarily on KNM-WT 17000. The gorillalike structure of this skull has led some to propose that australopithecines were not human ancestors. But why throw out the Taung Baby with the bath water? This skull has much more in common with a gorilla than does that of a gracile australopithecine. Perhaps the gracile forms, and not the robust ones, were the ancestors of humans. Given the lack of postcranial material, perhaps this skull, with its large sagittal crest and zygomas, why not suppose that this skull actually does represent the remains of an ancient gorilla or gorillalike ape (modern gorilla skulls show a great deal of individual variation and this particular cranium probably falls within that range of variation) -- this, however, is merely the author's opinion and is not an idea generally accepted.
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