http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-11/30/content_7175554.htm
*Old skulls hint early men, women dated like gorillas*
BEIJING, Nov. 30 (Xinhuanet) -- Two-million-year-old skulls found in South
African caves hint that ancient men preferred troops of females to a
monogamous relationship.
The skulls belonged to Paranthropus robustus hominids, mostly
males, extinct human relatives who split diverged from our evolutionary path
about 2.5 million years ago. Scientists said the preponderance of male
skulls, located in what were likely lairs of hyenas or leopards, offered a
clear view into our close relative's social culture.
"That's a major clue because it tells us males are at greater risk of
predation," said Charles Lockwood, a paleoanthropologist at the University
College London. "You see this kind of death trend with other primates, where
dominant males cast out the competition. Most of the specimens in our sample
were the equivalent of young adults, 18 to 19 years old."
Run off by larger male suitors, Lockwood thinks younger males lived a
solitary life, effectively exposing themselves to predators outside of group
safety that females had. That, Lockwood said, is evolutionary selection in
action for bigger, impressive males living in with a resident group of
females.
"Males being selected for were the equivalent of dominant silverback
gorillas," Lockwood said, effectively dwarfing their female companions and
rivals. "The dominant males survived to pass on their genetic heritage while
others risked a greater chance of death."
Recent estimates of P. robustus suggest mature females were probably
light at 65 pounds (30 kilograms), while dominant males weighed up to 130
pounds (60 kilograms) after five or six years of growth. Lockwood said these
estimates are certainly close, but future access to bones other than skulls
"would be fantastic" for better estimates.
"Predators always ate the good parts," he said; hungry animals left the
thick, hard-to-bust skulls behind, preferring to munch on narrower bones
with nutritious marrow inside. "But it's possible that we'll eventually find
a cave or pit were P. robustus fell in. That might preserve most of the
bones."
Lockwood said comparisons of the skulls and skull fragments added more
evidence of a gorilla-like mating society: The males kept ballooning in size
beyond sexual maturity, unlike human males that taper off soon afterwards.
(Agencies)
Editor: Gareth Dodd
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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