First partial skeleton of a 1.34-million-year-old Paranthropus boisei from Bed II, Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania

PLoS One. 2013 Dec 5;8(12):e80347. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0080347. eCollection 2013.

Abstract

Recent excavations in Level 4 at BK (Bed II, Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania) have yielded nine hominin teeth, a distal humerus fragment, a proximal radius with much of its shaft, a femur shaft, and a tibia shaft fragment (cataloged collectively as OH 80). Those elements identified more specifically than to simply Hominidae gen. et sp. indet are attributed to Paranthropus boisei. Before this study, incontrovertible P. boisei partial skeletons, for which postcranial remains occurred in association with taxonomically diagnostic craniodental remains, were unknown. Thus, OH 80 stands as the first unambiguous, dentally associated Paranthropus partial skeleton from East Africa. The morphology and size of its constituent parts suggest that the fossils derived from an extremely robust individual who, at 1.338±0.024 Ma (1 sigma), represents one of the most recent occurrences of Paranthropus before its extinction in East Africa.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Fossils*
  • Hominidae / anatomy & histology*
  • Hominidae / classification*
  • Organ Specificity
  • Paleontology*
  • Skeleton*
  • Tanzania

Grants and funding

We thank the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology for funding this research through the HAR2010-18952-C02-01 Project, the Comunidad de Madrid through the S2010/BMD-2330 I+D project, and the Ministry of Culture through the Archaeological Research Abroad program. We thank the LSB Leakey Foundation for a Baldwin Fellowship granted to AOG to conduct this research. The Argon Isotope Facility at SUERC thanks NERC for continued funding. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.