From Newsgroup: sci.anthropology.paleo


https://news.uchicago.edu/story/scientists-unearth-26-million-year-old-hominin-fossil-ethiopia

In a new paper published in Nature, a team led by
University of Chicago paleoanthropologist Zeresenay
Alemseged reported the discovery of the first
Paranthropus specimen from the Afar region of
Ethiopia, more than 600 miles north of the genusrCO
previous northernmost occurrence.
...
The new find, a partial lower jaw dated to
2.6 million years old, is one of the oldest
Paranthropus specimens unearthed to date. It offers
significant new information about when and where
Paranthropus existed, its adaptation to diverse
environmental conditions, and how it may have
interacted with other ancient relatives of modern
humans, including our genus Homo.

The find shows that Paranthropus was as widespread
and versatile as Homo and was not necessarily
outcompeted by Homo, the scientists said.
...
rCLHundreds of fossils representing over a dozen
species of Ardipithecus, Australopithecus, and
Homo had been found in the Afar region of northern
Ethiopia,rCY Alemseged said, rCLso the apparent absence
of Paranthropus was conspicuous and puzzling to
paleoanthropologists, many of whom had concluded
the genus simply never ventured that far north.rCY
...



https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09826-x
Afar fossil shows broad distribution and
versatility of Paranthropus

Abstract
The Afar depression in northeastern Ethiopia
contains a rich palaeontological and
archaeological record, which documents 6rCemillion
years of human evolution. Abundant faunal evidence
links evolutionary patterns with palaeoenvironmental
change as a principal underlying force. Many of the
earlier hominin taxa recognized today are found in
the Afar, but Paranthropus has been conspicuously
absent from the region. Here we report on the
discovery, in the Mille-Logya research area, of a
partial mandible that we attribute to Paranthropus,
dated to between 2.5 and 2.9rCemillion years ago and
found in a well-understood chronological and faunal
context. The find is among the oldest fossils
attributable to Paranthropus and indicates that this
genus, from its earliest known appearance, had a
greater geographic distribution than previously
documented. Often seen as a dietary specialist
feeding on tough food, the range of diverse habitats
with which eastern African Paranthropus can now be
associated shows that this suggested adaptive niche
did not restrict its ability to disperse as widely
as species of Australopithecus and early Homo. The
discovery of Paranthropus in the Afar emphasizes
how little is known about hominin evolution in
eastern Africa during the crucial period between 3
and 2.5rCemillion years ago, when this genus and the
Homo lineage presumably emerged.

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