Experts have been puzzled by recently discovered fossils from the hand of an extinct human relative, Paranthropus boisei. They have been surprised by a mix of human-like and gorilla-like traits in the fingers.
In the journal Nature, researchers describe the set of 1.5-million-year-old fossils from a site in Kenya that includes the first unambiguous Paranthropus hand bones identified in the fossil record. They are also a very rare example of a relatively complete set of hand bones from this time.
The first example of Paranthropus was discovered in South Africa by Dr Robert Broom in 1938. Its name means “beside man” and reflects the fact that it shared a direct ancestor (known as Australopithecus) with our own genus, Homo, but existed alongside the early human lineage. Broom’s fossils belonged to the species Paranthropus robustus.
