2018/08/21 by Johan Nygren · 1 citation
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Social Sciences · Psychology · #Evolution and Paleontology Studies #Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology #Primate Behavior and Ecology
paper · doi:10.7287/peerj.preprints.27130v3
openalex publication_date 2018/08/21 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/14
The discovery of Paranthropus deyiremeda in 3.3–3.5 million year old fossil sites in Afar (Haile-Selassie, 2015), together with 30% of the gorilla genome showing lineage sorting between humans and chimpanzees (Scally, 2012), and a NUMT (“nuclear mitochondrial DNA segment”) that is shared by both gorillas, humans and chimpanzees, and that dates back to 6 million years ago (Popadin, 2017), is conclusive evidence that introgression from the gorilla lineage caused the speciation of both the Australopithecus lineage and the Paranthropus lineage, providing a lens into the gorilla-like features within Paranthropus , as well as traits within Homo that originate from the gorilla branch, such as a high opposable thumb index (Almécija, 2015), an adducted great toe (Tocheri, 2011; McHenry, 2006), and large deposits of subcutaneous fat.