Enamel Proteins Reveal Biological Sex and Genetic Variability within Southern African Paranthropus
Year: 2025
Type: article
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.
Authors: Madupe, Palesa, Koenig, Claire, Patramanis, Ioannis, Ruter, Patrick, Hlazo, Nomawethu, Mackie, Meaghan, Tawane, Mirriam, Krueger, Johanna, Taurozzi, Alberto John, Troche, Gaudry, Kibii, Job, Pickering, Robyn, Dickinson, Marc, Sahle, Yonatan, Kgotleng, Dipuo, Musiba, Charles, Manthi, Fredrick K., Bell, Liam, DuPlessis, Michelle, Gilbert, Catherine, Zipfel, Bernhard, Kuderna, Lukas, Lizano, Esther, Welker, Frido, Kyriakidou, Pelagia, Cox, Jürgen, Mollereau, Catherine, Tokarski, Caroline, Blackburn, Jonathan, Ramos Madrigal, Jazmín, Marques-Bonet, Tomas, Penkman, Kirsty Elizabeth Helena, Zanolli, Clement, Schroeder, Lauren, Racimo, Fernando, Olsen, Jesper V, Ackermann, Rebecca, Cappellini, Enrico
Institutions: University of Copenhagen, University of Cape Town, Novo Nordisk Foundation, National Heritage Council, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Institut de Biologia Evolutiva, University of York, University of Johannesburg, Duke University, National Museums of Kenya, Université de Bordeaux, Chimie et Biologie des Membranes et des Nanoobjects, University of the Witwatersrand, Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, University of Bergen, Centre de Recherches sur la Cognition Animale, Université de Toulouse, Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine, De la Préhistoire à l'Actuel : Culture, Environnement et Anthropologie, University of Toronto
Language: English
Subfield: Anthropology
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
Awards: G3999154382, G493076183
OpenAlex ID: W7009604000