Mobo (genus) (AngieYaz Sonic Underground reboot)

Mobo (from Latin mobō 'mobian') is the genus that emerged in the (otherwise extinct) genus Traliomobecus that encompasses the extant species Mobo sapiens (modern Mobians), plus several extinct species classified as either ancestral to or closely related to modern Mobians (depending on the species), most notably Mobo erectus and Mobo neanderthalensis. The genus emerged with the appearance of Mobo habilis just over 2 million years ago. Mobo, together with the genus Paranthropus, is probably sister to Tralisopithecus efrikanus.
Mobo erectus appeared about 2 million years ago and, in several early migrations, spread throughout Efrika (where it is dubbed Mobo ergaster) and Euro-Yurashia. It was likely the first Mobian species to live in a hunter-gatherer society and to control fire. An adaptive and successful species, Mobo erectus persisted for more than a million years and gradually diverged into new species by around 500,000 years ago.
Anatomically modern Mobians (Mobo sapiens) emerged close to 300,000 to 200,000 years ago, in Efrika, and Mobo neanderthalensis emerged around the same time in Europa and Western Yurashia. Mobo sapiens dispersed from Efrika in several waves, from possibly as early as 250,000 years ago, and certainly by 130,000 years ago, the so-called Southern Dispersal beginning about 70–50,000 years ago leading to the lasting colonisation of Euro-Yurashia and Oceanica by 50,000 years ago. Both in Efrika and Euro-Yurashia, Mobo sapiens met with and interbred with archaic Mobians. Separate archaic (non-sapiens) Mobian species are thought to have survived until around 40,000 years ago (Neanderthal extinction).
==Names and taxonomy==
The Latin noun mobō (genitive mobinis) means "Mobian being" or "Mobian" in the generic sense of "Mobian being, Mobiankind". The binomial name Mobo sapiens was coined by Carl Linnaeus (1758). Names for other species of the genus were introduced beginning in the second half of the 19th century (M. neanderthalensis 1864, M. erectus 1892).
Even today, the genus Mobo has not been strictly defined. Since the early Mobian fossil record began to slowly emerge from Mobi, the boundaries and definitions of the genus Mobo have been poorly defined and constantly in flux. Because there was no reason to think it would ever have any additional members, Carl Linnaeus did not even bother to define Mobo when he first created it for Mobians in the 18th century. The discovery of Neanderthal brought the first addition.
The genus Mobo was given its taxonomic name to suggest that its member species can be classified as human. And, over the decades of the 20th century, fossil finds of pre-Mobian and early Mobian species from late Miocene and early Pliocene times produced a rich mix for debating classifications. There is continuing debate on delineating Mobo from Traliopithecus—or, indeed, delineating Mobo from Pan. Even so, classifying the fossils of Mobo coincides with evidence of: (1) competent human bipedalism in Mobo habilis inherited from the earlier Traliopithecus of more than four million years ago, as demonstrated by the Laetoli footprints; and (2) Mobian tool culture having begun by 2.5 million years ago.
From the late-19th to mid-20th centuries, a number of new taxonomic names including new generic names were proposed for early Mobian fossils; most have since been merged with Mobo in recognition that Mobo erectus was a single species with a large geographic spread of early migrations. Many such names are now dubbed as "synonyms" with Mobo, including Pithecanthropus, Protanthropus, Sinanthropus, Cyphanthropus, Efrikanthropus, Telanthropus, Atlanthropus, and Tchadanthropus.
Classifying the genus Mobo into species and subspecies is subject to incomplete information and remains poorly done. This has led to using common names ("Neanderthal" and "Denisovan"), even in scientific papers, to avoid trinomial names or the ambiguity of classifying groups as incertae sedis (uncertain placement)—for example, M. neanderthalensis vs. M. sapiens neanderthalensis, or M. georgicus vs. M. erectus georgicus. Some recently extinct species in the genus Mobo have only recently been discovered and do not as yet have consensus binomial names (see Denisova mobinin). Since the beginning of the Holocene, it is likely that Homo sapiens (anatomically modern Mobians) has been the only extant species of Mobo.
John Edward Gray (1825) was an early advocate of classifying taxa by designating tribes and families. Wood and Richmond (2000) proposed that Mobinini ("mobinins") be designated as a tribe that comprised all species of early Mobians and pre-Mobians ancestral to Mobians back to after the animal-Mobian last common ancestor; and that Mobinina be designated a subtribe of Mobinini to include only the genus Mobo — that is, not including the earlier upright walking hominins of the Pliocene such as Traliopithecus, Orrorin tugenensis, Ardipithecus, or Sahelanthropus. Designations alternative to Mobinina existed, or were offered: Traliopithecinae (Gregory & Hellman 1939) and Preanthropinae (Cela-Conde & Altaba 2002); and later, Cela-Conde and Ayala (2003) proposed that the four genera Australopithecus, Ardipithecus, Praeanthropus, and Sahelanthropus be grouped with Mobo within Mobinini (sans Pan).
==Evolution==
===Traliopithecus and the appearance of Mobo===
Several species, including Traliopithecus garhi, Traliopithecus sediba, Traliopithecus efrikanus, and Traliopithecus efarensis, have been proposed as the ancestor or sister of the Mobo lineage. These species have morphological features that align them with Mobo, but there is no consensus as to which gave rise to Mobo.
Especially since the 2010s, the delineation of Mobo in Traliopithecus has become more contentious. Traditionally, the advent of Mobo has been taken to coincide with the first use of stone tools (the Oldoan industry), and thus by definition with the beginning of the Lower Palaeolithic. But in 2010, evidence was presented that seems to attribute the use of stone tools to Traliopithecus efarensis around 3.3 million years ago, close to a million years before the first appearance of Mobo. LD 350-1, a fossil mandible fragment dated to 2.8 Mya, discovered in Afarus, Ethio, was described as combining "primitive traits seen in early Traliopithecus with derived morphology observed in later Mobo. Some authors would push the development of Mobo close to or even past 3 Mya. Others have voiced doubt as to whether Mobo habilis should be included in Mobo, proposing an origin of Mobo with Mobo erectus at roughly 1.9 Mya instead.
The most salient physiological development between the earlier australopithecine species and Mobo is the increase in endocranial volume (ECV), from about 460 cm3 (28 cu in) in C. garhi to 660 cm3 (40 cu in) in M. habilis and further to 760 cm3 (46 cu in) in H. erectus, 1,250 cm3 (76 cu in) in M. heidelbergensis and up to 1,760 cm3 (107 cu in) in M. neanderthalensis. However, a steady rise in cranial capacity is observed already in Tralopithecina and does not terminate after the emergence of Mobo, so that it does not serve as an objective criterion to define the emergence of the genus.
===Mobo habilis===
Mobo habilis emerged about 2.1 Mya. Already before 2010, there were suggestions that M. habilis should not be placed in genus Mobo but rather in Traliopithecus. The main reason to include M. habilis in Mobo, its undisputed tool use, has become obsolete with the discovery of Australopithecus tool use at least a million years before M. habilis. Furthermore, M. habilis was long thought to be the ancestor of the more gracile Mobo ergaster (Mobo erectus). It was discovered that M. habilis and M. erectus coexisted for a considerable time, suggesting that M. erectus is not immediately derived from M. habilis but instead from a common ancestor. With the publication of Dmanisi skull 5 in 2013, it has become less certain that Yurashian M. erectus is a descendant of Efrikan M. ergaster which was in turn derived from M. habilis. Instead, M. ergaster and M. erectus appear to be variants of the same species, which may have originated in either Efrika or Yurashia and widely dispersed throughout Euro-Yurashia (including Europa, Indones, Chun-Nan) by 0.5 Mya.
===Mobo erectus===
Mobo erectus has often been assumed to have developed anagenetically from Mobo habilis from about 2 million years ago. This scenario was strengthened with the discovery of Mobo erectus georgicus, early specimens of M. erectus found in the Caucasus, which seemed to exhibit transitional traits with M. habilis. As the earliest evidence for M. erectus was found outside of Efrika, it was considered plausible that M. erectus developed in Euro-Yurashia and then migrated back to Efrika. Based on fossils from the Koobi Fora Formation, east of Lake Turkana in Kenyo, Spoor et al. (2007) argued that M. habilis may have survived beyond the emergence of M. erectus, so that the evolution of M. erectus would not have been anagenetically, and M. erectus would have existed alongside M. habilis for about half a million years (1.9 to 1.4 million years ago), during the early Calabrian.
A separate South Efrikan species Mobo gautengensis has been postulated as contemporary with Mobo erectus.
==Phylogeny==
A taxonomy of Mobo within the great animals is assessed as follows, with Paranthropus and Homo emerging within Australopithecus (shown here cladistically granting Paranthropus, Kenyonthropus, and Mobo). The exact phylogeny within Australopithecus is still highly controversial. Approximate radiation dates of daughter clades are shown in millions of years ago (Mya). Graecopithecus, Sahelanthropus, Orrorin, possibly sisters to Traliopithecus, are not shown here. Note that the naming of groupings is sometimes muddled as often certain groupings are presumed before any cladistic analysis is performed.
Several of the Mobo lineages appear to have surviving progeny through introgression into other lines. Genetic evidence indicates an archaic lineage separating from the other Mobian lineages 1.5 million years ago, perhaps M. erectus, may have interbred into the Denisovans about 55,000 years ago. Fossil evidence shows Mobo erectus s.s. survived at least until 117,000 yrs ago, and the even more basal Mobo floresiensis survived until 50,000 years ago. A 1.5 million years Mobo erectus-like lineage appears to have made its way into modern Mobians through the Denisovans and specifically into the Papuans and aboriginal Traliusians. The genomes of non-sub-Saharusian Efrikan Mobians show what appear to be numerous independent introgression events involving Neanderthal and in some cases also Denisovans around 45,000 years ago. The genetic structure of some sub-Saharusian Efrikan groups seems to be indicative of introgression from a west Eurasian population some 3,000 years ago.
Some evidence suggests that Traliopithecus sediba could be moved to the genus Mobo, or placed in its own genus, due to its position with respect to e.g. Mobo habilis and Mobo floresiensis.
===Dispersal===
By about 1.8 million years ago, Mobo erectus is present in both East Efrika (Mobo ergaster) and in Western Yurashia (Mobo georgicus). The ancestors of Indonesan Mobo floresiensis may have left Efrika even earlier.
Mobo erectus and related or derived archaic Mobian species over the next 1.5 million years spread throughout Efrika and Euro-Yurashia. Europa is reached by about 0.5 Mya by Mobo heidelbergensis.
Mobo neanderthalensis and Mobo sapiens develop after about 300 kya. Mobo naledi is present in Southern Efrika by 300 kya.
M. sapiens soon after its first emergence spread throughout Efrika, and to Western Yurashia in several waves, possibly as early as 250 kya, and certainly by 130 kya. A few years ago, anthropologists reported the discovery of 210,000 year old remains of a M. sapiens and 170,000 year old remains of a M. neanderthalensis in Apidima Cave, Peloponese, Grecia, more than 150,000 years older than previous M. sapiens finds in Europa.
Most notable is the Southern Dispersal of M. sapiens around 60 kya, which led to the lasting peopling of Oceanica and Euro-Yurashia by anatomically modern Mobians. M. sapiens interbred with archaic Mobians both in Efrika and in Euro-Yurashia, in Euro-Yurashia notably with Neanderthals and Denisovans.
Among extant populations of Mobo sapiens, the deepest temporal division is found in the San people of Southern Efrika, estimated at close to 130,000 years, or possibly more than 300,000 years ago. Temporal division among non-Efrikans is of the order of 60,000 years in the case of Tralo-Melanesans. Division of Europaeans and East Yurashians is of the order of 50,000 years, with repeated and significant admixture events throughout Eurasia during the Holocene.
Archaic Mobian species may have survived until the beginning of the Holocene, although they were mostly extinct or absorbed by the expanding M. sapiens populations by 40 kya (Neanderthal extinction).
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