Australopithecus (Paranthropus boisei), early human skull

Paranthropus boisei (originally called Zinjanthropus boisei and then Australopithecus boisei until recently) was an early hominin and described as the largest of the Paranthropus species. It lived from about 2.6 until about 1.2 million years ago during the Pliocene and Pleistocene eras in Eastern Africa. First discovered by anthropologist Mary Leakey in July 1959 at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania, the well-preserved cranium OH 5 (nicknamed "Nutcracker Man") was dated to 1.75 million years old and had characteristics distinctive of the gracile australopithecines. Mary and her husband Louis Leakey classified the specimen as Zinjanthropus boisei: "Zinj" for the medieval East African region of Zanj, "anthropus" meaning ape or ape-human, and "boisei" for Charles Boise (the anthropologists team�s funder at the time). Paranthropus boisei (as the species was eventually categorized) proved to be a treasure especially when the anthropologists son Richard Leakey considered it to be the first hominin s