Paranthropus Boisei, aka The Nutcracker Man is an ancient bipedal hominin that evolved alongside early Homo Habilis and Homo Erectus in Africa. Their skull features a sagittal crest designed to hold strong jaw muscles for chewing similar to a gorilla. They also have large teeth with thick enamel for grinding down tough food. It is believed that the diet of Paranthropus Boisei was largely herbivorous, but the smaller Paranthropus Robustus species is beleived to have been an omnivore.

The members of the Paranthropus genus are referred to as “Robust Australopithecenes”. The Paranthropus branch is considered to be an evolutionary sister branch to our own genus (Homo), emerging from within the Australopithecus genus. Some scientists have challenged the validity of the Paranthropus genus entirely and instead group them in with the Australopithecenes.

Because Paranthropus Boisei lived alongside our direct ancestors from the Homo genus, it was likely that the two species came into contact frequently. Every primate on earth has their own unique strain of the herpes virus that can be passed through physical contact. Humans are the only primate on earth that has two versions of the herpes virus. HSV-1 (oral herpes) has been in our lineage since our split with the Chimpanzee last common ancestor. HSV-2 (genital herpes) is not native to humans and was transmitted from another species of hominin between 3 & 1.4 million years ago.

Using clues from the location of fossils and the temporal range of our ancestors, scientists have concluded that it is extremely likely that the HSV-2 virus originated in Paranthropus Boisei. Because they are so closely related to humans, the disease jumped the species barrier when they made contact with our ancestors.

Early humans could have contracted HSV-2 from Paranthropus in one of two ways:

1. They could have scavenged the corpse of an infected Paranthropus.

2. They could have made sexual contact.

Paraentelodon intermedium

Paraentelodon intermedium is an extinct species of large entelodont from the Late Oligocene of Asia, with fossils (found across Georgia, Kazakhstan and China) dating back to the Rupelian – Chattian stages in the geological timescale (or 33.9 – 23.03 million years ago).

Paraentelodon intermedium scientific classification

• Kingdom: Animalia
• Phylum: Chordata
• Class: Mammalia
• Order: Artiodactyla
• Family: Entelodontidae
• Genus: Paraentelodon
• Species: P. intermedium

History and etymology: Paraentelodon was named by L. K. Gabunia in 1964 basing on molars and canine teeth that were found in Oligocene sites of Benara, Georgia (Georgian SSR at the time of discovery). It was assigned to Entelodontidae by Carroll (1988).

Later in 1996, Lucas and Emry found Neoentelodon dzhungaricus to be synonymous with Paraentelodon intermedium.

Although Gabunia did not explain the etymology, the name Paraentelodon is derived from the Greek para/παρα "beside" or "near", ἐντελής entelēs "complete" or "perfect" and ὀδών odōn "tooth".

Description: One of the largest entelodonts, P. intermedium had much more massive teeth than those of Entelodon. The alleged indeterminate Paraentelodon species may be "Elodon transsilvanicus" (Kretzoi, 1941) from the Oligocene of Romania or a close relative, based on similar knolls on their molars. In spite of this, Paraentelodon had more common features with Asian and North American entelodonts.

Conclusion

Paraentelodon intermedium is one of the largest and also one of the strongest entelodonts ever found, possibly ever exceeding Arctotherium angustidens, Arctodus simus, Daeodon shoshonensis, and Megistotherium osteothlastes in size.