Forbidden Archeology: The Hidden History of the Human Race

Broom also found at Kromdraai a fragment of humerus (the bone of the upper arm) and a fragment of ulna (one of the bones of the lower arm). He said: “had they been found isolated probably every anatomist in the world would say that they were undoubtedly human” (Broom 1950, p. 57).

In 1947, Le Gros Clark wrote that the humerus fragment from Paranthropus (TM 1517) displayed “a very close resemblance to the humerus of Homo sapiens and none of the distinctive features found in the recent anthropoid apes” (Zuckerman 1954, p. 310).

As might be expected, not everyone accepted this assessment of the TM 1517 humerus. In 1949, Straus said that “it is in general more like the average chimpanzee than like the average man.” But he added that “this probably should not be stressed since it consistently falls within the ranges of variation of both species” ( Zuckerman 1954, p. 311). A subsequent morphometric analysis done by H. M. McHenry (1972, p. 95) puts the TM 1517 humerus from Kromdraai “within the human range.” As we have seen, scientists attribute the TM 1517 humerus to Paranthropus robustus, a robust australopithecine. Significantly, a robust australopithecine humerus from Koobi Fora, Kenya (ER 739), fell outside the human range in McHenry’s study (1972, p. 95). So perhaps the TM 1517 humerus belonged to something other than a robust australopithecine. It is not impossible that the Kromdraai humerus and ulna, like the Sterkfontein femur, belonged to more advanced hominids, perhaps resembling anatomically modern humans.

World War II interrupted Broom’s excavation work in South Africa. During this interval, he began the task of fully describing his Australopithecus discoveries, including Dart’s Taung specimen.

After the war, Broom found another australopithecine skull (St 5) at Sterkfontein (Figure 11.6). Later he discovered further remains of an adult female australopithecine (St 14)—including parts of the pelvis, vertebral column, and legs. Their morphology, along with certain features of the Sterkfontein skulls, demonstrated, in Broom’s opinion, that the australopithecines had walked erect(Zuckerman 1954, p. 310).

Figure 11.6. Left: The skull of a female chimpanzee (after Zuckerman 1954, p. 308). Right: The St 5 Plesianthropus (Australopithecus) transvaalensis skull discovered by Robert Broom at Sterkfontein, South Africa (Broom et al. 1950, plate 1).

 

11.3.4 Paranthropus and Telanthropus

At Swartkrans, near Sterkfontein, Robert Broom and J. T. Robinson found, beginning in 1947, fossils of a robust australopithecine called Paranthropus crassidens (large-toothed near-man). This creature had large strong teeth and a bony crest on top of the skull. The crest served as the point of attachment for big jaw muscles.

In addition to the fossils of Paranthropus crassidens, Broom and Robinson found the jaw of another kind of hominid in the Swartkrans cave. They attributed the jaw (SK 15), smaller and more humanlike than that of Paranthropus crassidens, to a new hominid called Telanthropus capensis.

Member 1 at Swartkrans, where all of the Paranthropus bones were found, is now said to be 1.2 to 1.4 million years old (Groves 1989, p. 198) or 1.8 million years old (Susman 1988, p. 782). But ages of 2.0 million and 2.6 million years have also been proposed (Tobias 1978, p. 65). Member 2, where the SK 15 Telanthropus mandible was found, is said to be 300,000 to 500,000 years old. Member 2 is said to represent an erosion channel. This makes it hard to tell how old the SK 15 jaw really is. It could have been washed in with other bones in the Middle Pleistocene. Or perhaps it could have been eroded from Early Pleistocene Member 1. In general, dating fossils found in the South African caves is quite difficult. The caves have been periodically filled and refilled over the course of 1 to 2 million years, resulting in an exceedingly confused stratigraphy. Those who have a degree of faith in chemical dating methods may take note that K. P. Oakley tested the fluorine content of the Telanthropus jaw and found it to be the same as the Paranthropus fossils (Broom and Robinson 1952, p. 113).