Object Details
- Discovered by
- Richard Leakey and H. Mutua
- Age
- About 1.7 million years old
- Is this an original object?
- No
- Summary
- KNM-ER 406 is a nearly complete adult male Paranthropus boisei. It has the facial and cranial features typical of the species such as massive cheek teeth, and the widely flaring zygomatic arches with a forward placed connection to the other facial bones, and large cheek bones supported powerful chewing muscles - the latter two features giving it a "dish-shaped" face. Other muscles extended from his jaw to the sagittal crest at the top of his head. The cranial capacity of this skull has been estimated at 510 cubic centimeters.
- P. boisei commonly ate fruit and other soft foods. But these early humans were also able to crush and grind tough plant foods during difficult times.
- Date of discovery
- 1969
- Original Object Identifier
- KNM-ER 406
- Location of Discovery
- Koobi Fora, Kenya
- Site
- Koobi Fora, Kenya
- Species
- Paranthropus boisei
- NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
- Record ID
- dpo_3d_200076
