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Diet of Paranthropus boisei in the early Pleistocene of East Africa.

ABSTRACT: The East African hominin Paranthropus boisei was characterized by a suite of craniodental features that have been widely interpreted as adaptations to a diet that consisted of hard objects that required powerful peak masticatory loads. These morphological adaptations represent the culmination of an evolutionary trend that began in earlier taxa such as Australopithecus afarensis, and presumably facilitated utilization of open habitats in the Plio-Pleistocene. Here, we use stable isotopes to show that P. boisei had a diet that was dominated by C(4) biomass such as grasses or sedges. Its diet included more C(4) biomass than any other hominin studied to date, including its congener Paranthropus robustus from South Africa. These results, coupled with recent evidence from dental microwear, may indicate that the remarkable craniodental morphology of this taxon represents an adaptation for processing large quantities of low-quality vegetation rather than hard objects.

SUBMITTER: Cerling TE

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3111323 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Diet of Paranthropus boisei in the early Pleistocene of East Africa.

Cerling Thure E TE Mbua Emma E Kirera Francis M FM Manthi Fredrick Kyalo FK Grine Frederick E FE Leakey Meave G MG Sponheimer Matt M Uno Kevin T KT

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20110502 23

The East African hominin Paranthropus boisei was characterized by a suite of craniodental features that have been widely interpreted as adaptations to a diet that consisted of hard objects that required powerful peak masticatory loads. These morphological adaptations represent the culmination of an evolutionary trend that began in earlier taxa such as Australopithecus afarensis, and presumably facilitated utilization of open habitats in the Plio-Pleistocene. Here, we use stable isotopes to show ...[more]

PMID: 21536914

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Dataset Information

Diet of Paranthropus boisei in the early Pleistocene of East Africa.

Publications

Diet of Paranthropus boisei in the early Pleistocene of East Africa.

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