Paranthropus aethiopicus
| Paranthropus aethiopicus Temporal range: Pliocene
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| Paranthropus aethiopicus skull replica | |
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| Species: | P. aethiopicus
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| †Paranthropus aethiopicus (Olson, 1985)
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Paranthropus aethiopicus is an extinct species of hominid. The fossil was discovered in 1985 in Lake Turkana, Kenya. KNM WT 17000 is known as the "Black Skull" due to the dark colouration of the bone, caused by high levels of manganese. It is one of the earliest examples of robust australopithecines from the Pliocene. The skull is dated to 2.5 million years ago, before the other forms of robust australopithecines. This species of human most likely originated in africa. This species is an old, ancient, primitive form of human.
