Paranthropus boisei

[ puh-ran-thruh-puhs boi-sey, par-uhn-throh-puhs ]

noun

1. an extinct species of very rugged, large-toothed bipedal hominin, originally named Zinjanthropus boisei and later Australopithecus boisei, that lived in eastern Africa about 1–2 million years ago.
2. a fossil belonging to this species.

Word History and Origins

Origin of Paranthropus boisei¹

First recorded in 1955–60; from New Latin; Paranthropus ( def ) + boisei after Charles Boise, a benefactor of L.S.B. Leakey, who described and named the original finds in 1959

Example Sentences

In 1955, Louis and Mary Leakey discovered the Nutcracker Man, a skull with a robust jaw and teeth now classified as Paranthropus boisei, in the same 1.8-million-year-old layer of sediments as Oldowan tools.

From Science Magazine

“Every other species of primate only has one kind of herpes simplex virus,” said Charlotte Houldcroft, a virologist at the University of Cambridge in England. Houldcroft and her colleagues suggest that a long-ago meeting of two primates — when Paranthropus boisei met Homo erectus — explains why our story is different.

From Washington Post

Houldcroft said. In the model's most likely scenario, Paranthropus boisei infected a human ancestor called Homo erectus.

From Washington Post

Perhaps our ancestor killed and ate a Paranthropus boisei.

From Washington Post

Perhaps Homo erectus scavenged on Paranthropus boisei's corpse.

From Washington Post