Paranthropus Robustus - Discovery

Discovery

After Raymond Dart’s discovery of Australopithecus africanus, Broom had been in favour of Dart's claims about Australopithecus africanus being an ancestor of Homo sapiens. Broom was a Scottish doctor then working in South Africa who began making his own excavation in Southern Africa to find more specimens, which Dart had found earlier. In 1938, at 70 years old, Broom, excavating at Kromdraai, South Africa discovered pieces of a skull and teeth which resembled Dart's Australopithecus africanus find, but the skull had some "robust" characteristics.

The fossils included parts of a skull and teeth; all dated to 2 million years old. Fossil sites found on Paranthropus robustus are found only in South Africa in Kromdraai, Swartkrans, Drimolen, Gondolin and Coopers. In the cave at Swartkrans, the remains of 130 individuals were discovered. The study made on the dentition of the hominins revealed that the average P. robustus rarely lived past 17 years of age.

Paranthropus robustus became the first "robust" species of hominid ever uncovered well before P. boisei and P. aethiopicus. Broom's first discovery of P. robustus had been the first discovery of a robust australopithecine and the second australopithecine after Australopithecus africanus, which Dart discovered. Broom's work on the australopithecines showed that the evolution trail leading to Homo sapiens was not just a straight line, but was one of rich diversity.