Editing Paranthropus (section)

===Species===
{{Multiple image|align=right|direction=vertical|width=150|image1=Original of Paranthropus robustus Face.jpg|image2=Australophithecus boisei (cast), Olduvai Gorge - Springfield Science Museum - Springfield, MA - DSC03368.JPG|image3=Paranthropus aethiopicus.JPG|footer=From top to bottom, ''P. robustus'' ([[SK 48]]), ''P. boisei'' ([[OH 5]]) and ''P. aethiopicus'' ([[KNM WT 17000]])}}
<mapframe text="Selected Paranthropus sites from the [https://www.roceeh.uni-tuebingen.de/roadweb ROAD database] (CC BY-SA 4.0 ROCEEH)" width="250", height="300">
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====''P. robustus''====
The genus ''Paranthropus'' was first erected by Scottish-South African [[palaeontologist]] [[Robert Broom]] in 1938, with the [[type species]] ''[[Paranthropus robustus|P. robustus]]''.<ref name=Broom1938/> "''Paranthropus''" derives from [[Ancient Greek]] παρα ''para'' beside or alongside; and άνθρωπος ''ánthropos'' man.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Paranthropus|title=''Paranthropus''|publisher=Merriam–Webster Dictionary|access-date=19 December 2019}}</ref> The [[type specimen]], a male braincase, [[TM 1517]], was discovered by schoolboy Gert Terblanche at the [[Kromdraai fossil site]], about {{cvt|70|km}} southwest of [[Pretoria]], South Africa.<ref name=Broom1938>{{cite journal|first=R.|last=Broom|author-link=Robert Broom|year=1938|title=The Pleistocene Anthropoid Apes of South Africa|journal=Nature|volume=142|issue=3591|pages=377–379|doi=10.1038/142377a0|bibcode=1938Natur.142..377B|doi-access=free}}</ref> By 1988, at least six individuals were unearthed in around the same area, now known as the [[Cradle of Humankind]].<ref name=Constantino2004/>

In 1948, at [[Swartkrans]] Cave, in about the same vicinity as Kromdraai, Broom and South African palaeontologist [[John Talbot Robinson]] described ''P. crassidens'' based on a subadult jaw, SK 6. He believed later ''Paranthropus'' were morphologically distinct from earlier ''Paranthropus'' in the cave—that is, the Swartkrans ''Paranthropus'' were [[reproductively isolated]] from Kromdraai ''Paranthropus'' and the former eventually [[speciate]]d.<ref>{{cite journal|first=R.|last=Broom|year=1948|title=Another new type of fossil ape-man|journal=Nature|volume=162|issue=4132|page=57|doi=10.1038/163057a0|pmid=18106151|s2cid=4126221|doi-access=free}}</ref> By 1988, several specimens from Swartkrans had been placed into ''P. crassidens''. However, this has since been synonymised with ''P. robustus'' as the two populations do not seem to be very distinct.<ref name=Constantino2004/>

====''P. boisei''====
In 1959, ''[[P. boisei]]'' was discovered by [[Mary Leakey]] at [[Olduvai Gorge]], [[Tanzania]] (specimen [[OH 5]]). Her husband [[Louis Leakey|Louis]] named it ''Zinjanthropus boisei'' because he believed it differed greatly from ''Paranthropus'' and ''Australopithecus''. The name derives from "[[Zanj|Zinj]]", an ancient Arabic word for the coast of East Africa, and "boisei", referring to their financial benefactor [[Charles Watson Boise]].<ref name=Leakey1959>{{cite journal|first=L.|last=Leakey|author-link=Louis Leakey|year=1959|title=A New Fossil Skull from Olduvai|journal=Nature|volume=184|issue=4685|pages=491–493|url=https://www.academia.edu/616307|doi=10.1038/184491a0|bibcode=1959Natur.184..491L|s2cid=4217460}}</ref> However, this genus was rejected at Mr. Leakey's presentation before the 4th Pan-African Congress on Prehistory, as it was based on a single specimen.<ref>{{cite book|last=Morell|first=V.|year=2011|title=Ancestral Passions: The Leakey Family and the Quest for Humankind's Beginnings|publisher=Touchstone|page=193|isbn=978-1-4391-4387-2}}</ref> The discovery of the [[Peninj Mandible]] made the Leakeys reclassify their species as ''Australopithecus (Zinjanthropus) boisei'' in 1964,<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Leakey|first1=L. S. B.|author-link=Louis Leakey|last2=Leakey|first2=M. B.|author-link2=Mary Leakey|year=1964|title=Recent discoveries of fossil hominidsin Tanganyika, at Olduvai and near Lake Natron|journal=Nature|volume=202|issue=4927|pages=5–7|doi=10.1038/202005a0|pmid=14166721|bibcode=1964Natur.202....5L|s2cid=4162123}}</ref> but in 1967, South African palaeoanthropologist [[Phillip V. Tobias]] subsumed it into ''Australopithecus'' as ''A. boisei''. However, as more specimens were found, the combination ''Paranthropus boisei'' became more popular.<ref>{{cite journal|first=B.|last=Wood|year=2005|title=A tale of two taxa|journal=Transactions of the Royal Society of South Africa|volume=60|issue=2|pages=91–94|doi=10.1080/00359190509520483|bibcode=2005TRSSA..60...91W |s2cid=83659439}}</ref>

It is debated whether the wide range of variation in jaw size indicates simply [[sexual dimorphism]] or a grounds for identifying a new species. It could be explained as [[groundmass]] filling in cracks naturally formed after death, inflating the perceived size of the bone.<ref>{{cite journal|first1=N.|last1=Silverman|first2=B.|last2=Richmond|first3=B.|last3=Wood|year=2001|title=Testing the taxonomic integrity of ''Paranthropus boisei sensu stricto''|journal=American Journal of Physical Anthropology|volume=115|issue=2|pages=167–178|doi=10.1002/ajpa.1066|pmid=11385603}}</ref><ref name=Constantino2007/><ref name=Wood2007/> ''P. boisei'' also has a notably wide range of variation in skull anatomy, but these features likely have no taxonomic bearing.<ref>{{cite journal|first1=B.|last1=Wood|first2=D.|last2=Lieberman|author-link2=Daniel Lieberman|year=2001|title=Craniodental variation in ''Paranthropus boisei'': a developmental and functional perspective|journal=American Journal of Physical Anthropology|volume=116|issue=1|pages=13–25|doi=10.1002/ajpa.1097|pmid=11536113|url=https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/dlieberman/files/2001a.pdf}}</ref>

====''P. aethiopicus''====
[[File:Paranthropus Africa.jpg|thumb|Locations of ''Paranthropus'' finds]]
In 1968, French palaeontologists [[Camille Arambourg]] and [[Yves Coppens]] described "''Paraustralopithecus aethiopicus''" based on a toothless mandible from the [[Shungura Formation]], Ethiopia (Omo 18).<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Arambourg|first1=C.|author-link=Camille Arambourg|first2=Y.|last2=Coppens|author-link2=Yves Coppens|year=1968|title=Sur la decouverte dans le Pleistocene inferieur de la valle de l'Omo (Ethiopie) d'une mandibule d'Australopithecien|language=fr|trans-title=On the discovery in the Lower Pleistocene Omo Valley (Ethiopia) of an Australopithecine Mandible|journal=Comptes Rendus des Séances de l'Académie des Sciences|volume=265|pages=589–590}}</ref> In 1976, American anthropologist [[Francis Clark Howell]] and Breton anthropologist [[Yves Coppens]] reclassified it as ''A. africanus''.<ref name=Ferguson1989/> In 1986, after the discovery of the skull [[KNM WT 17000]] by English anthropologist [[Alan Walker (anthropologist)|Alan Walker]] and [[Richard Leakey]] classified it into ''Paranthropus'' as ''[[P. aethiopicus]]''.<ref>{{cite journal|first1=A.|last1=Walker|author-link=Alan Walker (anthropologist)|first2=R. E.|last2=Leakey|author2-link=Richard Leakey|first3=J. M.|last3=Harris|first4=F. H.|last4=Brown|year=1986|title=2.5-Myr Australopithecus boisei from west of Lake Turkana, Kenya|journal=Nature|volume=322|issue=6079|pages=517–522|doi=10.1038/322517a0|bibcode=1986Natur.322..517W|s2cid=4270200}}</ref> There is debate whether this is synonymous with ''P. boisei'',<ref name=Constantino2007/> the main argument for separation being the skull seems less adapted for chewing tough vegetation.<ref name=Wood2007/><ref name=Wood2000/>

In 1989, palaeoartist and zoologist [[Walter Ferguson]] reclassified KNM WT 17000 into a new species, ''walkeri'', because he considered the skull's species designation questionable as it comprised the skull whereas the holotype of ''P. aethiopicus'' comprised only the mandible.<ref name=Ferguson1989>{{cite journal|first=W. W.|last=Ferguson|author-link=Walter Ferguson|year=1989|title=A New Species of the Genus ''Australopithecus'' (Primates: Hominidae) from Plio/Pleistocene Deposits West of Lake Turkana in Kenya|journal=Primates|volume=30|issue=2|pages=223–232|doi=10.1007/BF02381307|s2cid=28642451}}</ref> Ferguson's classification is almost universally ignored,<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=440TmWXToLAC&pg=PT298|first=B.|last=Wood|title=Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Human Evolution|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|pages=298–299|isbn=978-1-4443-4247-5|year=2011}}</ref> and is considered to be synonymous with ''P. aethiopicus''.<ref>{{cite book|first1=R.|last1=Leakey|author-link=Richard Leakey|first2=R.|last2=Lewin|author-link2=Roger Lewin|year=1993|title=Origins Reconsidered: In Search of what Makes Us Human|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KQULA9F9--IC&pg=PA362|publisher=Anchor Books|pages=132–133|isbn=978-0-385-46792-6}}</ref>

====Others====

In 2015, Ethiopian palaeoanthropologist [[Yohannes Haile-Selassie]] and colleagues described the 3.5–3.2 Ma ''[[A. deyiremeda]]'' based on three jawbones from the [[Afar Region]], Ethiopia. They noted that, though it shares many similarities with ''Paranthropus'', it may not have been closely related because it lacked enlarged molars which characterize the genus.<ref>{{cite journal|first1=Y.|last1=Haile-Selassie|author-link=Yohannes Haile-Selassie|first2=L.|last2=Gilbert|first3=S. M.|last3=Melillo|display-authors=et al.|year=2015|title=New species from Ethiopia further expands Middle Pliocene hominin diversity|journal=Nature|volume=521|issue=14448|pages=483–488|doi=10.1038/nature14448|pmid=26017448|url=https://afanporsaber.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/New-species-from-Ethiopia-further-expands-Middle-Pliocene-hominin-diversity.pdf|bibcode=2015Natur.521..483H|s2cid=4455029}}</ref> Nonetheless, in 2018, independent researcher Johan Nygren recommended moving it to ''Paranthropus'' based on dental and presumed dietary similarity.<ref name=Nygren>{{cite journal|first=J.|last=Nygren|year=2018|title=The speciation of ''Australopithecus'' and ''Paranthropus'' was caused by introgression from the ''Gorilla'' lineage|journal=PeerJ Preprints|volume=6|page=e27130v3|url=https://www.biorxiv.org/content/biorxiv/early/2018/10/05/434894.full.pdf|doi=10.7287/peerj.preprints.27130v3|bibcode=2018arXiv180806307N|arxiv=1808.06307|s2cid=52054499 |doi-access=free }}</ref>