Paranthropus boisei

Paranthropus boisei is a species of australopithecine from the Early Pleistocene of East Africa about 2.5 to 1.15 million years ago. The holotype specimen, OH 5, was discovered by palaeoanthropologist Mary Leakey in 1959 at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania and described by her husband Louis a month later. It was originally placed into its own genus as "Zinjanthropus boisei", but is now relegated to Paranthropus along with other robust australopithecines. However, it is also argued that Paranthropus is an invalid grouping and synonymous with Australopithecus, so the species is also often classified as Australopithecus boisei.

Paranthropus boisei

Daderot · CC0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
ParanthropusPBDB
Diet
omnivorePBDB, for Hominidae
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Hominidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 780 thousand years on record.

The record covers at least 2.58 Mya to 1.8 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 5.333 Mya to 11.7 ka.

Miocene — about 0 of 66 occurrencesPliocene — about 2 of 66 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 64 of 66 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 0 of 66 occurrences5.4–5.3 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences5.3–5.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.1–4.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.9–4.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.7–4.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.5–4.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.3–4.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.1–3.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.9–3.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.7–3.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.5–3.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.3–3.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.1–2.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.9–2.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.7–2.5 Mya — about 2 occurrences2.5–2.3 Mya — about 9 occurrences2.3–2.1 Mya — about 9 occurrences2.1–1.9 Mya — about 9 occurrences1.9–1.8 Mya — about 8 occurrences1.8–1.6 Mya — about 5 occurrences1.6–1.4 Mya — about 5 occurrences1.4–1.2 Mya — about 5 occurrences1.2–972 ka Mya — about 5 occurrences972 ka–778 ka Mya — about 5 occurrences778 ka–583 ka Mya — about 0.2 occurrences583 ka–389 ka Mya — about 0.1 occurrences389 ka–194 ka Mya — about 0.1 occurrences194 ka–0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.58 Mya1.8 Mya5.8 Mya0 Mya

66 occurrences of Paranthropus boisei on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

66 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

7 formations

Koobi Fora — 4.29°N, 36.23°EKoobi Fora — 4.26°N, 36.28°EKoobi Fora — 4.24°N, 36.26°EKoobi Fora — 3.90°N, 36.24°EKoobi Fora — 3.98°N, 36.32°EKoobi Fora — 4.07°N, 36.37°EKoobi Fora — 3.94°N, 36.25°EKoobi Fora — 3.91°N, 36.38°EKoobi Fora — 4.18°N, 36.42°EShungura — 5.07°N, 36.02°EShungura — 5.15°N, 36.04°EShungura — 5.03°N, 36.02°EShungura — 5.09°N, 36.06°EOlduvai — 2.99°S, 35.34°ENachukui — 3.85°N, 35.76°EHumbu — 2.33°S, 35.97°EChemoigut — 0.65°N, 36.20°EChiwondo — 10.00°S, 33.92°E

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The named rock units Paranthropus boisei has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 3 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Paranthropus boisei and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Paranthropus boisei and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

269 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 59 sites for Paranthropus boisei, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

19 references

Each of the 66 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 7 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content2

Picture of Paranthropus boisei

Credit
Daderot
Licence
CC0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution-NonCommercial
Commercial use
the licence does not allow it

Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itParanthropus through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Leakey 1959)