Evidence of one of the smallest — and perhaps unluckiest — early human relatives has been found in South Africa, according to a paper in the Journal of Human Evolution.
Researchers who found what they identified as a fossil of a Paranthropus robustus female, estimated she stood just under 3 feet 4.5 inches. That’s about half an inch shorter than the famous “Lucy” and 6 inches shorter than the so-called Hobbits.
Comparing those three species’ heights is interesting, but perhaps unfair, since they are separated by many millennia and not necessarily directly connected by evolution. This particular P. robustus lived about 2 million years ago and was found in South Africa. Lucy, an Australopithecus afarensis member, hails from Ethiopia about 3.2 million years ago. And the hobbits, or Homo floresiensis, lived about on an island in Indonesia about 12,000 years ago.
Lucky Find of an Unlucky Hominin
This P. robustus female was unlucky, because it appears, based upon the teeth marks on her bones, that she was the victim of a leopard. The carnivore likely ate its victim from a tree, occasionally dropping bones, which may have scattered over time. A few of those bones found their way into a cave, which is where the researchers found them.
Travis Pickering, a paleoanthropologist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, who helped discover, identify, and describe the fossil, says he was “ecstatic” when he saw the bones.
“A find like this, in this context — that is, millions of years old and from a cave, which is extremely dynamic in terms of things like the build-up sediment, rockfall from the roof, the activities of prehistoric animals that dwelled in it, including eating and chewing bone — is as rare as finding hen’s teeth,” he says. “I couldn’t be happier.”
Read More: New Fossil Discovery Reveals Surprising Insights into Prehistoric Human Behavior
Pre-Human Diversity
Pickering, an author of the paper describing the fossil, says the find is especially important because it sheds light on the diversity of early human ancestors.
“Paranthropus robustus wasn’t our direct ancestor, but, instead, was a very closely related contemporary (a ‘cousin,’ if you will) of Homo ergaster, a species that we do think was our direct ancestor,” Pickering says. “More generally, it’s important to understand the range of diversity represented in the whole human family in order to truly appreciate how we are connected to the rest of the natural world and that we are also subject to the same forces that have shaped other lifeforms.”
Although the scientists reconstructed the fossil’s height, and estimated that she likely had a stocky build, they were stumped by the slenderness of her leg bones, especially in comparison to her more robust hips. Pickering says that issue continues to “vex” the team, but finding more of her bones might help them solve the puzzle. He thinks there is a good chance of such a find, since leopards tend to dine in one spot.
Read More: The Flores Man Hobbits: Are They Still Alive?
A Species That Did Thrive
Although other P. robustus bones have been similarly found with teeth marks, Pickering says that, just because the species had been victims of predators, that doesn’t somehow make them incompetent. That tag doesn’t fit a species that was able to thrive for a million years.
“Just because some Paranthropus robustus individuals — including that represented by the new fossils — were the unfortunate victims of predators, it would be completely unfair to conclude that whole species was somehow bumbling,” Pickering says.
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Before joining Discover Magazine, Paul Smaglik spent over 20 years as a science journalist, specializing in U.S. life science policy and global scientific career issues. He began his career in newspapers, but switched to scientific magazines. His work has appeared in publications including Science News, Science, Nature, and Scientific American.
