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PALAEOANTHROPOLOGY

Microevolution in our megadont relative

Nature Ecology & Evolution volume 5, pages 14–16 (2021)Cite this article

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Cranial variation in South African specimens of Paranthropus robustus illustrate temporal changes that suggest how the morphology of this hominin fossil species related to its palaeoenvironment and microevolutionary processes.

When fossils of Paranthropus were first discovered in 1938 at the South African site called Kromdraai B, scientists found an unanticipated biped, an evident relative of the genus Homo that possessed a massive cranium and large (megadont) premolar and molar teeth suggesting a diet that required powerful chewing. Named Paranthropus robustus by the South African palaeontologist Robert Broom1, the Kromdraai fossils were followed by more finds of the species from Swartkrans, Sterkfontein, Gondolin, Coopers and Drimolen — nearby caves with complicated stratigraphic deposits that, until recently, have proven difficult to date precisely2. Dating advances that combine uranium–lead, uranium-series electron spin resonance, and palaeomagnetism have recently yielded tight age constraints for these fossil sites3,4. Drimolen Main Quarry (DMQ) provides an especially important example where several fairly complete P. robustus crania are well constrained to ~2.04 to 1.95 million years ago (Ma)5. Writing in Nature Ecology & Evolution, Martin and co-authors6 compare the DMQ specimens with P. robustus from Swartkrans Member 1 Hanging Remnant (abbreviated here as SK) and Kromdraai B (KB), dated to roughly 1.8 Ma. The authors integrate phylogenetic analysis, functional anatomy, palaeoecology, and evolutionary theory to offer an example of microevolutionary change over a period of approximately 200,000 years.

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Fig. 1: A schematic of temporally patterned morphological variation and potential sampling biases for two populations of P. robustus at two time periods, t1 and t2, separated by 200,000 years.

References

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  1. Human Origins Program, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, USA

    Richard Potts

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  1. Richard Potts
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Correspondence to Richard Potts.

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Potts, R. Microevolution in our megadont relative. Nat Ecol Evol 5, 14–16 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-020-01339-2

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