From Newsgroup: sci.anthropology.paleo
https://scitechdaily.com/new-fossil-discovery-challenges-assumptions-about-early-human-size/
Remarkable new fossils from Swartkrans Cave
reveal that a prehistoric relative of humans
was also extremely small and vulnerable to
predators.
...
Unfortunately, Swartkrans has yielded far
fewer bones from the rest of the Paranthropus
robustus skeleton over the years, limiting our
understanding of its stature, posture, and
locomotion, essential characteristics related
to finding food and mates. A major new
discovery from Swartkrans, the first a
rticulating hip bone, thigh bone, and shin
bone of Paranthropus robustus, is now
changing that.
...new research that this group of fossils
belong to a single, young adult Paranthropus
robustus. The fossil not only demonstrates
that the species was, like modern humans, a
habitual upright walker, but also confirms
it was also extremely small.
The small size of the new Paranthropus
robustus individual would have made it
vulnerable to predators rCo such as sabertooth
cats and giant hyenas rCo known to have
occupied the area around Swartkrans Cave.
This notion is confirmed by the teamrCOs
investigation of damage on the surface of
the fossils, which includes tooth marks and
other chewing damage identical to that made
by leopards on the bones of their prey.
...
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0047248424001556
First articulating os coxae, femur, and
tibia of a small adult Paranthropus
robustus from Member 1 (Hanging Remnant)
of the Swartkrans Formation, South Africa
Abstract
Since paleontological work began there in 1948,
Swartkrans (South Africa) has yielded hundreds
of Early Pleistocene hominin fossils, currently
attributed to (in ascending order of quantity)
cf. Australopithecus africanus, Homo spp., and
Paranthropus robustus. The bulk of that large
sample comprises craniodental remains, with
(mostly fragmentary) postcranial materials
being much less abundant at the site. In that
context, our announcement here of the first
articulating partial os coxae, nearly complete
femur, and complete tibia of a young adult
hominin (SWT1/HR-2), excavated from the <2.3
to >1.7-million-year-old Hanging Remnant
(Member 1) of the Swartkrans Formation,
represents an important addition to the
understanding of hominin postural and
locomotor behavior in Early Pleistocene South
Africa. We provide qualitative and quantitative
descriptions and initial functional
morphological interpretations of the fossils,
based mostly on external bone morphology.
Epiphyseal fusion data, element dimensions, the
crural index, and live body stature and mass
estimates that we provide all indicate that
SWT1/HR-2 is one of the smallest known adult
hominins in the fossil record. We discuss the
paleobiological implications of these findings
in relation to our taxonomic diagnosis of
SWT1/HR-2 as representing P. robustus.
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