Contemporaneity of <i>Australopithecus</i>, <i>Paranthropus</i>, and early <i>Homo erectus</i> in South Africa.

Abstract

Understanding the extinction of <i>Australopithecus</i> and origins of <i>Paranthropus</i> and <i>Homo</i> in South Africa has been hampered by the perceived complex geological context of hominin fossils, poor chronological resolution, and a lack of well-preserved early <i>Homo</i> specimens. We describe, date, and contextualize the discovery of two hominin crania from Drimolen Main Quarry in South Africa. At ~2.04 million to 1.95 million years old, DNH 152 represents the earliest definitive occurrence of <i>Paranthropus robustus</i>, and DNH 134 represents the earliest occurrence of a cranium with clear affinities to <i>Homo erectus</i> These crania also show that <i>Homo</i>, <i>Paranthropus</i>, and <i>Australopithecus</i> were contemporaneous at ~2 million years ago. This high taxonomic diversity is also reflected in non-hominin species and provides evidence of endemic evolution and dispersal during a period of climatic variability.