Paranthropus aethiopicus
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Paranthropus aethiopicus Temporal range: Pliocene |
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| Paranthropus aethiopicus skull replica | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Primates |
| Family: | Hominidae |
| Genus: | Paranthropus |
| Species: | P. aethiopicus |
| Binomial name | |
| †Paranthropus aethiopicus (Olson, 1985) |
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Paranthropus aethiopicus is an extinct species of hominid. The finding discovered in 1985 in Turkana, Kenya, KNM WT 17000 (known as the "Black Skull" due to the dark coloration of the bone, caused by high levels of manganese), is one of the earliest examples of robust hominids from Pliocene. The skull is dated to 2.5 million years ago, older than the later forms of robust australopithecines. Anthropologists suggest that P. aethiopicus lived between 2.7 and 2.5 million years ago.
