Zinjanthropus

Zinjanthropus, humanlike creature that probably lived about 1,750,000 years ago. Its skull was discovered (1959) at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania, by Mary D. Leakey. The skull belonged to a creature about 17 years of age with a low brow and large, flat teeth. Zinjanthropus was probably chiefly herbivorous and had a brain about one-third the size of a modern human. It may have used stone tools. It became extinct about 1 million years ago. Zinjanthropus was renamed (1967) Australopithecus boisei.

See also: Australopithecus.