Image
courtesy of Alemseged Research Group
Joel Kontinen
According
to evolution fragments of a "2.6
million-year-old" fossil jaw discovered in northeastern Ethiopia are
transforming the picture of early human evolution in Africa. The jaw, from a
bipedal hominin — an extinct relative of humans.
"Until
now, not a single fossil of Paranthropus had been identified" in
the Afar region of Ethiopia, researchers wrote in a study published Wednesday
(Jan. 21) in the journal Nature. "Hundreds of fossils
representing over a dozen species" of hominins had been found in the Afar,
study lead author Zeresenay
Alemseged, a
paleoanthropologist at the University of Chicago, said in a statement, "so the apparent absence
of Paranthropus was conspicuous and puzzling to paleoanthropologists,
many of whom had concluded the genus simply never ventured that far
north."
The
genus Paranthropus contains three species
distantly related to humans: P. robustus, P. boisei and P.
aethiopicus, collectively known as the "robusts." These species
walked upright beginning around 2.7 million years ago, but they are unique in
having massive teeth and jaws, which earned one fossil skull the nickname
"Nutcracker Man." Paranthropus fossils
were previously found in locations from southern Ethiopia to southern Africa
and have been dated to between 2.8 million and 1.4 million years ago.
In January
2019, paleoanthropologists discovered a partial lower jaw, designated MLP-3000,
at the site of Mille-Logya in the Afar region of
northeast Ethiopia. Dated to about 2.6 million years ago, the jaw came from an
older individual whose teeth and bone structure resembled those of members of
the Paranthropus genus. While one species — P. aethiopicus —
has been found in southern Ethiopia, the new MLP-3000 jaw was discovered much
farther north than any previous fossil from this genus.
"The
discovery of Paranthropus in the Afar provides critical new
information," the researchers wrote, suggesting that "the genus could
exploit diverse habitats and regions from north Ethiopia to South Africa
as Australopithecus and Homo did." This means
that Paranthropus likely had a much more flexible diet than the
"Nutcracker Man" moniker suggests, enabling these hominins to
disperse and adapt to a wide range of environmental conditions.
The
newfound Paranthropus fossil at Mille-Logya adds a third genus to
the variety of hominins present in the Afar region
between 2.8 million and 2.5 million years ago, including Australopithecus and early Homo. It is not yet clear, though, whether the
species would have encountered one another directly.
"Discoveries
like this really trigger interesting questions in terms of reviewing, revising,
and then coming up with new hypotheses as to what the key differences were
between the main hominin groups," Alemseged said.
Carol Ward, a biological anthropologist at the
of University of Missouri who was not
involved in the study, wrote in an accompanying perspective that, given the diversity of
hominin species present, "the revelation
that Paranthropus inhabited the Afar between 3 million and 2.4
million years ago is particularly exciting."
According
to evolution, although all humans on the planet today are one species, hominin
diversity lasted millions of years, until our extinct cousins the Neanderthals and Denisovans disappeared more than 30,000
years ago, Ward noted.
Nutcracker
man is not related to humans. The dating of the fossil is off by hundreds of millions
of years.
Source:
Kristina Killgrove 2026
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