Re: Genus names

G. Hanenburg (ghanenbu@inter.NL.net)
Wed, 15 Feb 1995 21:37:46 GMT

fgeenhzn@iu.net (Faybienne Geenhuizen) writes:

>Why are the species robustus and boisei sometimes given the
>genus name Australopithecus and other times Paranthropus?

The speciesname Paranthropus has historical priority over Australopithecus.
The name Paranthropus was first used by R.Broom in 1938 when he described
the first specimen from the site of Kromdraai(South Africa) as belonging
to the taxon Paranthropus robustus.

Gerrit Hanenburg.