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Paranthropus
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====''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=491β493|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=5β7|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=91β94|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=167β178|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=13β25|doi=10.1002/ajpa.1097|pmid=11536113|url=https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/dlieberman/files/2001a.pdf}}</ref>
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