Heirs without descendants, but not without consequences

In 1967, Camille Arambourg and Yves Coppens reported the discovery of an edentulous adult mandible from the Lower Omo Valley in Ethiopia. A year later they made it the type specimen of Paraustralopithecus aethiopicus (Arambourg & Coppens, 1968), claiming its morphology differed from other early hominins, including Paranthropus boisei (Robinson, 1960). Most researchers now include the type specimen and the hypodigm in the genus Paranthropus Broom, 1938 as either a separate species, or as part of an inclusive interpretation of P. boisei (i.e., P. boisei sensu lato). After briefly reviewing what is known about P. boisei and P. aethiopicus we suggest how interactions between those taxa and early Homo may have influenced the latter’s evolutionary history. Although Paranthropus likely left no descendants, it may have made a critical contribution to our own evolutionary history.