Paranthropus - Disputed Taxonomy

Disputed Taxonomy

Evolutionary Biologist Richard Dawkins notes "perhaps several different species" of robust hominids, and "as usual their affinities, and the exact number of species, are hotly disputed. Names that have been attached to various of these creatures...are Australopithecus (or Paranthropus) robustus, Australopithecus (or Paranthropus or Zinjanthropus) boisei, and Australopithecus (or Paranthropus) aethiopicus."

Opinions differ whether the species P. aethiopicus, P. boisei and P. robustus should be included within the genus Australopithecus. The emergence of the robusts could be either a display of divergent or convergent evolution. There is currently no consensus in the scientific community whether P. aethiopicus, P. boisei and P. robustus should be placed into a distinct genus, Paranthropus, which is believed to have evolved from the ancestral Australopithecus line. Up until the last half-decade, the majority of the scientific community included all the species of both Australopithecus and Paranthropus in a single genus. Currently, both taxonomic systems are used and accepted in the scientific community. However, although Australopithecus robustus and Paranthropus robustus are used interchangeably for the same specimens, some researchers, beginning with Robert Broom, and continuing with people such as Bernard A. Wood, think that there is a difference between Australopithecus and Paranthropus, and that there should be two genera.