Thursday, November 09, 2006

Paranthropus Ate Well

An early human relative from 1.8 million years ago dined on the prehistoric equivalent of a smorgasbord -- fruit, nuts, roots, leaves and perhaps meat, according to a study that casts doubt on a key theory about its demise.

The four-foot-tall (1.2 metres), 100-pound (45-kg) bipedal hominid Paranthropus robustus lived in what is now South Africa alongside direct ancestors of modern humans, as well as hyenas, saber-toothed cats, elephants, baboons, antelopes and others.

A prevailing notion among scientists has been that Paranthropus was driven into extinction as Africa's climate became drier because it had a very limited diet, while our direct ancestors thrived on a diverse menu.

But scientists, writing on Thursday in the journal Science, used a sophisticated technique to analyse four teeth from the Swartkrans cave site in South Africa, and showed Paranthropus had a much more varied diet than previously thought.

[...]

"This whole idea that Paranthropus ultimately went extinct because it was so specialized that it couldn't cope with environmental change during the Pleistocene is probably dramatically over-simplified at best and very possibly just outright incorrect," Sponheimer said.

Paranthropus, with big thick teeth, a strong, heavy jaw and strong chewing muscles, previously was thought to have specialized in eating low-quality vegetation requiring lots of chewing.

University of Utah geochemist Thure Cerling, a study coauthor, said the researchers would like to do similar studies on other species in humankind's family tree, and planned to approach museums about access to other ancient teeth.


So what did happen to them? We we kill them off? or did we get some nookie there too?

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