In the 1970s, some archaeologists found lithic tools (Olduvana technology) alongside Paranthropus fossils, both in Tanzania and South Africa. At first it was thought to be a simple coincidence. Then, other finds started to show a direct stratigraphic link between these tools and Paranthropus. In practice: they lived in the same place and at the same time, and it doesn’t mean that they weren’t the ones who used (and perhaps manufactured) those objects.
Today we know that Olduvane technologies are older than the appearance of the genus Homo. This means that the clear distinction between “those who create” and “those who are not human” could be our prejudice.
They lived together with other human species: a long and crowded coexistence
Throughout their long history, Paranthropus . They shared Africa with several species of Australopithecines and with early Homo: habilis, rudolfensis, ergaster, erectus. And not only that: they even came to live in the same period as the first hominids who left Africalike Homo georgicus.
A real “evolutionary jungle“made up of coexistence, competition and, perhaps, cultural contamination. Nothing to do with the idea of linear evolution, from ape to man. The reality is that evolution has been a tangle of branches, many of which have become extinctleaving only us as the last representatives.
Why today it is important to rediscover Paranthropus
We often tell ourselves that human intelligence is what made us unique. Yet, the story of Paranthropus forces us to reconsider that adaptability, survival and perhaps even technological innovation are not exclusive prerogatives of our gender.
These hominids they survived for a long timewith a small brain but perhaps underestimated practical skills. And that says a lot about how evolution really works.
Talk about it today, but one way to understand how complex and shared our history is on the planet. And how much there is still to discover.
