A two-million-year-old skull of a distant human cousin with huge teeth has been found in archaeological excavations in the South African cave system led by Australian Ndale an Australia.
Researchers at La Trobe University say the discovery is the oldest known and most well-preserved example of a small-brained hominin named Paranthropus robustus.
The almost complete male skull found in the Drumlane cave system near Johannesburg in 2018 could lead to new insights into human microorganisms.
Paranthropus robustus went to Earth at the same time as our direct ancestor Homo erectus, said paleontherologist Angelin Lees, referring to the hominins, a small-minded member of the human family tree.
“But these two largely different species – Homo erectus with their relatively large brains and small teeth, and Paranthropus robustus with their relatively large teeth and small brains – represent different evolutionary experiments.”
“When we finally played the lineage, fossil records two million years ago suggest that paranthropus was more common on the Robustus landscape than Homo erectus.”
More recently, scientists have believed that paranthropus robusts exist in social structures such as gorillas, with small dominant males living in groups of small paranthropus robusts females.
This is close to the shape of the first female specimens found at the rare male fossil site, providing the first high-resolution evidence for microvolution in early hominin species.
Researchers argue that this discovery could lead to an improved system for classifying and understanding the paleobiology of human ancestors – a significant development for their field.
Archaeologist Andy Harris said the skull, which was definitely rebuilt from hundreds of bone fragments, represents the beginning of a very successful paranthropus robustus lineage that has existed in South Africa for over a million years.
He said, ‘Like other animals on earth, our ancestors also adapted and evolved to adapt to the landscape and atmosphere around them.’
“We believe that these changes took place as South Africa was drying up, leading to the extinction of a number of contemporary mammals. It is possible that climate change caused environmental stress that led to evolution within the paranthropus robusts. “
The findings of the new findings were published in the Cradle Human F Humankayef of South Africa in Nature Ecology and Evolution on Tuesday.
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