Paranthropus robustus

Paranthropus robustus was a robust australopithecine that lived in South Africa during the Early Pleistocene, roughly 2.27 to 1.0 million years ago (or, more conservatively, 2 to 1 million years ago). It was first discovered in 1938, making it one of the earliest early hominins to be described, and it became the type species for the genus *Paranthropus*. However, some researchers argue that *Paranthropus* is not a valid group and should be folded into *Australopithecus*, so the species is often also called *Australopithecus robustus*.

The species is known from several cave sites in the Cradle of Humankind: Kromdraai, Swartkrans, Sterkfontein, Gondolin, Cooper's, and Drimolen. Isolated specimens have also been reported from Makapansgat, extending its range beyond the Cradle. The first remains—a partial skull including part of a jawbone (TM 1517)—were uncovered in June 1938 at Kromdraai by a local schoolboy, Gert Terblanche, who gave them to conservationist Charles Sydney Barlow, who then passed them to palaeontologist Robert Broom. Broom later recovered additional bones from the same site, including a right distal humerus, a proximal right ulna, and a big toe bone, though these postcranial elements are separate finds with different catalog numbers. Noting how robust these remains were compared to other hominins, Broom classified them into a new genus, *Paranthropus robustus*, in August 1938. The name comes from Greek: *para* meaning "beside or alongside" and *anthropos* meaning "man."

At the time, Raymond Dart had controversially claimed an early ape-like human ancestor, *Australopithecus africanus*, in 1924. In 1936, Broom himself had described *"Plesianthropus transvaalensis"* (now considered the same as *A. africanus*) from Sterkfontein, just 2 km west of Kromdraai. Broom saw these finds as evidence of a greater diversity of early hominins in the Pliocene, with several taxa living alongside human ancestors. In 1948, Broom described a separate species, *"P. crassidens,"* from Swartkrans Cave, based on a subadult jaw (SK 6), because the animal assemblages at Swartkrans and Kromdraai suggested different time periods. He later proposed splitting early hominins into subfamilies, but this scheme was widely criticized for being too liberal. It was also unclear whether there were multiple hominin lineages or just one leading to humans. *P.