Australopithecus boisei
Australopithecus boisei (L. Leakey, Tobias, and Napier, 1964)
The discovery of the specimen OH 5 ("Zinj") in 1959, by Mary Leakey, was a watershed in the history of paleoanthropology.
The discovery of the specimen OH 5
("Zinj") in 1959, by Mary Leakey, was a watershed in the history of
paleoanthropology. The find vindicated Louis and Mary Leakey's work at Olduvai (which
had been relatively fruitless over the previous 30 years), which led to renewed
research interest in the area, added an important stage in a relatively sparse
hominid lineage at the time, and also was important in focusing attention on
multidisciplinary research. The fairly complete cranium (sans mandible) was
given the species name Zinjanthropus boisei by Louis Leakey, which
eventually became known as Australopithecus boisei. However,
Zinjanthropus lives on in the well known nickname of OH 5, "Zinj".
Specimens attributed to A. boisei have been found mostly in Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Kenya in East Africa. The oldest has been found at Omo, Ethiopia, dating to approximately 2.3 myr (L. 74a-21), and the youngest has been found at Olduvai Gorge, dating to approximately 1.2 myr (OH 3 and OH 38).A. boisei seems to be the end point of a lineage that that was adapted to high masticatory stress needed to deal with hard low-quality foods. This species is sometimes called "hyper-robust" due to the relative and absolute size of their postcanines. This lineage may have died out due to overspecialization to a specific environment, and when the environment changed, evolution could not keep up. This seems to be the generally accepted idea regarding boisei, and there seems little hard evidence to contradict it
Australopithecus (Zinjanthropus) boisei
TANZANIA
Yvert nš. 10
Australopithecus (africanus) boisei
Australopithecus bosei
CUBA
Yvert nš. 3675
Australopithecus (Zinjanthropus) bosei
