Grass-eating hominid was the primate equivalent of a cow

Although the ancient hominid Paranthropus boisei has earned the byname “ Nutcracker Man ” , his actual dieting was quite a bit softer . Unlike any other sleep with human ascendent , this ancient hominid ’s powerful jaw and immense molars were actually used to wipe out grass .

Researchers had long known that Paranthropus boisei used his huge mouth to squash nuts , seeds , and hard fruit . Its general anatomy included passing knock-down jaw muscles and the largest , flattest molars of any known hominid . But heedful analysis on the wearing gull of its tooth distinguish a unlike story , expose that he was in reality use up soft fruit or pot . In this young scenario , his knock-down mouth was used not to break down hard food but to take in as much gage as possible in a individual posing .

University of Colorado anthropologist Matt Sponheimer explain :

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“ Frankly , we did n’t ask to retrieve the primate equivalent of a cow dangling from a remote twig of our family tree . as luck would have it for us , the work of several enquiry groups over the last several years has begun to soften prevailing notions of former hominid diets . If we had represent our new results at a scientific meeting 20 years ago , we would have been express mirth out of the room . ”

Paranthropus boisei is , in evolutionary terms , sort of a great - uncle of modern humans . Around 2.5 million years ago , our rough-cut ascendent the Australopithecines split into two new genus , Homo and Paranthropus . While the Modern Homo genus ultimately lead to our developing , Paranthropus represented a dead end , with all members of the genus eventually give way out .

anthropologist had assumed that one major ground the genus died out was picky eating use . But the old picture of Paranthropus only eat nuts and seeds has slowly fallen away , and this new evidence of boisei ’s grass dieting suggests the genus was willing to eat anything . That mean it ’s more probable that Homo simply out - competed Paranthropus , with our genus using newfound applied science to survive boisei and his sibling species .

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