The first Robustus

Two years after Dr. Brooms successful escapade to the Sterkfontein caves, he would have another species to contend with and name from the farm next door.

This would be the first example of the "robust" australipithecines. He gave them their own genus (paranthropus) at first, which of course angered the British scientists.

By Ditsong National Museum of Natural History , CC BY-SA 4.0, Link

They had far bigger teeth and skulls and later even their bones would be found to be far more "robust" than the other more "gracile" australipiths.

The skull was found by a 15 year old schoolboy, Gert Terblanche on the farm Kromdraai. In trying to remove a souvenir he broke off the palate and some teeth and took them to show his schoolmates and the manager at Sterkfontein. Once Broom saw the palate he rushed off to the school to find Gert and the rest of the teeth. Together they were able to locate the rest of the skull still embedded in the rock and the beautiful specimen pictured above was the final result.

It was first named paranthropus robustus or "robust creature next to man". The genus paranthropus has fallen out of use in favor of placing them with the australopithicenes which have since been found in many places in Africa and with many variations.

The British scientific establishment was naturally upset by this new find and new genus but at least scientists from the US were starting to entertain the possibility that these were indeed representative of species closely allied to humans and their ancestors.