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Science 30 November 2007:
Vol. 318. no. 5855, pp. 1443 - 1446
DOI: 10.1126/science.1149211
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Reports

Extended Male Growth in a Fossil Hominin Species

Charles A. Lockwood,1,2* Colin G. Menter,3 Jacopo Moggi-Cecchi,2,4 Andre W. Keyser2

In primates that are highly sexually dimorphic, males often reach maturity later than females, and young adult males do not show the size, morphology, and coloration of mature males. Here we describe extended male development in a hominin species, Paranthropus robustus. Ranking a large sample of facial remains on the basis of dental wear stages reveals a difference in size and robusticity between young adult and old adult males. Combined with estimates of sexual dimorphism, this pattern suggests that male reproductive strategy focused on monopolizing groups of females, in a manner similar to that of silverback gorillas. However, males appear to have borne a substantial cost in the form of high rates of predation.

1 Department of Anthropology, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK.
2 Institute for Human Evolution, University of the Witwatersrand, WITS 2050, Johannesburg, South Africa.
3 Department of Anthropology and Development Studies, University of Johannesburg, Post Office Box 524 Auckland Park, Johannesburg, South Africa.
4 Laboratori di Antropologia, Dipartimento di Biologia Animale e Genetica, and Museo di Storia Naturale, Università di Firenze, 12 via del Proconsolo, 50122 Firenze, Italy.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: c.lockwood{at}ucl.ac.uk

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)