Enamel proteins reveal biological sex and genetic variability in southern African <i>Paranthropus</i>.
Date
2025-05
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Citation Stats
Attention Stats
Abstract
Paranthropus robustus is a morphologically well-documented Early Pleistocene hominin species from southern Africa with no genetic evidence reported so far. In this work, we describe the mass spectrometric sequencing of enamel peptides from four ~2 million-year-old dental specimens attributed morphologically to P. robustus from the site of Swartkrans in South Africa. The identification of AMELY-specific peptides enabled us to assign two specimens to male individuals, whereas semiquantitative mass spectrometric data analysis attributed the other two to females. A single amino acid polymorphism and the enamel-dentine junction shape variation indicated potential subgroups present within southern African Paranthropus. This study demonstrates how palaeoproteomics can help distinguish sexual dimorphism from other sources of variation in African Early Pleistocene hominins.
Type
Department
Description
Provenance
Subjects
Citation
Permalink
Published Version (Please cite this version)
Publication Info
Madupe, Palesa P, Claire Koenig, Ioannis Patramanis, Patrick L Rüther, Nomawethu Hlazo, Meaghan Mackie, Mirriam Tawane, Johanna Krueger, et al. (2025). Enamel proteins reveal biological sex and genetic variability in southern African <i>Paranthropus</i>. Science (New York, N.Y.), 388(6750). pp. 969–973. 10.1126/science.adt9539 Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/34597.
This is constructed from limited available data and may be imprecise. To cite this article, please review & use the official citation provided by the journal.
Collections
Scholars@Duke
Charles M Musiba
Dr. Charles Musiba is a Professor of Biological Anthropology at Duke University in the department of Evolutionary Anthropology. He is also a research professor at the Evolutionary Studies Institute, University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, and the Human Evolution Research Institute (HERI) at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. Charles Musiba is a Montgomery and Carnegie African Diaspora fellow with research focus on human origins in eastern Africa. His work covers the following areas: taphonomy and paleoecology of Laetoli, evolution of upright posture and bipedalism, hominin behavior ecology at Olduvai Gorge, conservation of hominin footprints and animal trackways at Laetoli, and the evolution of the genus Homo in Eastern and Southern Africa (Laetoli, Isimila and Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, and the Rising Star Cave in South Africa). Charles Musiba is interested in reconstructing past environments (4 million years ago to 250,000 years ago) using multiple proxy data and he is actively involved in conservation efforts and sustainable use of paleoanthropological resources in Tanzania through education and cultural exchange programs. Charles Musiba has extensively worked on the evolution of upright posture and bipedal gait in humans with emphasis on the interpretation of the 3.6 million years old fossil hominin footprints from Laetoli in northern Tanzania.
Unless otherwise indicated, scholarly articles published by Duke faculty members are made available here with a CC-BY-NC (Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial) license, as enabled by the Duke Open Access Policy. If you wish to use the materials in ways not already permitted under CC-BY-NC, please consult the copyright owner. Other materials are made available here through the author’s grant of a non-exclusive license to make their work openly accessible.