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‘Ancient Hominid Males Stayed Home While Females Roamed’

By Guest PostJune 7, 2011Scienceantelope, australopithecus africanus, baboons, basalt, bipedal hominid species, bipedalism, darryl de ruiter, early hominids, ethiopian fossil, female teeth, fossilized teeth, gadabout gals, geological substrates, Germany, granite, high tech analysis, hominid family tree, hyraxes, julia lee thorp, laser ablation, leipzig, local geology, lucy, male hominid teeth, mammal teeth, matt sponheimer, max plank institute for evolutionary anthropology, paranthropus boisei, paranthropus robustus, quartzite, sandi copeland, sandstone, South Africa, south african savannah, sterkfontein and swartkans cave systems, strontium isotope, strontium isotope signatures, university of colorado boulder

The males of two bipedal hominid species that roamed the South African savannah more than a million years ago were stay-at-home kind of guys when compared to the gadabout gals, says a new high-tech study led by the University of Colorado Boulder.

The team, which studied teeth from a group of extinct Australopithecus africanus and Paranthropus robustus individuals from two adjacent cave systems in South Africa, found more than half of the female teeth were from outside the local area, said CU-Boulder adjunct professor and lead study author Sandi Copeland. In contrast, only about 10 percent of the male hominid teeth were from elsewhere, suggesting they likely grew up and died in the same area. (more…)

‘Ancient Bipedal Hominid Dubbed ‘Nutcracker Man’ Preferred Grass to Nuts’

An ancient, bipedal hominid sporting a set of powerful jaws and huge molars that earned it the nickname “Nutcracker Man” likely didn’t crack nuts at all, preferring instead to slurp up vast quantities of grasses and sedges, says a new study.

The hominid, known as Paranthropus boisei, ranged across the African landscape more than 1 million years ago and lived side-by-side with direct ancestors of humans, said University of Colorado Boulder anthropology Professor Matt Sponheimer, a study co-author. It was long assumed Paranthropus boisei favored nuts, seeds and hard fruit because of its huge jaws, powerful jaw muscles and the biggest and flattest molars of any known hominid in the anthropological record, he said. (more…)

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‘Ancient Hominid Males Stayed Home While Females Roamed’

‘Ancient Bipedal Hominid Dubbed ‘Nutcracker Man’ Preferred Grass to Nuts’