Telanthropus

An actual reconstruction of the Boskop skull.

*Telanthropus*, the Boskop Man, or the "Boskopoid" or "Boskop race", is a dubious and cryptozoological genus of hominin that lived in South Africa during the Middle-Late Pleistocene.

## History

SK 15, a jaw with broken arms and some attached teeth, was discovered by Robert Broom and John Robinson from Swartkrans in 1947. They named *Telanthropus capensis* to carry this specimen. It contrasts the robust morphs from the same site that are typically associated with australopithecines. However, some think that the jaw represents a female australopithecine morph rather than a derived *Homo*. However, this argument lost backing when other sites show similar hominin coexistence. Rather than being assigned to *Homo ergaster* or *Homo erectus* sensu lato as it often is, others classify it as *Homo habilis* or a new species (*H. capensis*) that is earlier than all three aforementioned *Homo*. Paleoanthropologists such as John Hawks are even perplexed by its identity. It is now considered much closer to Paranthropus.

Two African farmers in 1913 found the skull near Boskop, South Africa. The remains were offered to Frederick William FitzSimons, and similar remains were discovered by Raymond Dart and William Pycraft. The skull fell into the hands of Robert Broom. The Boskop cranium consists of a frontal and parietal, partial occiput, a temporal partial limbs and a partial mandible with a second molar). Broom published a description of the Boskop Man, finding it had a brain size of 1980 centimeters³, much larger than the size of modern humans. Broom erected a new species to house this, *H. capensis*, with more remains being found. The cranial capacity of these skulls ranged from 1700 to 2000. By this time, paleoanthropologists were convinced a race of small-faced, big-brained hominins lived in South Africa, and coined the term "Boskop race" or "Boskopoid". However, scientists grew to doubt this species in the 1950s. One problem of the species was that the thickness of the skull wall made it difficult to determine. Another problem, explained by John Hawks (2008) in a blog, is that 1980 centimeters³ falls into the range of human brain size, and is even considered typical. Hawks also highlights another problem: anthropologists had been selecting larger skulls to refer to the species, even when associated with smaller skulls. All material was reassigned to *Homo sapiens*. It was thought to be the a representative of the Khoisan populations by the 1970s.

Similar skulls were found by Tsitsikamma (1921), Matjes River (1934), at Fish Hoek and Springbok Flats, Skhul, Qazeh, Border Cave, Brno, Tuinplaas and other locations. In the book Big Brain: The Origins and Future of Human Intelligence (2008) by Gary Lynch and Richard Granger, both neurologists, claimed the brain size was indicative of a high general intelligence, which was harshly criticized by Hawks. However, rumours about the Boskopoids have swelled online and in literature. Some claim the Boskop are a race of advanced hominins who were far more intelligent and were a different species than modern humans. These conspiracies typically include them hiding from *Homo sapiens* in underground cities to persist into the present day and form an Illuminati-like secret society. Others claim world leaders are "*H. capensis*", and some claim they are aliens. They link this species to hidden tunnels and other recent archeological finds. Most of these conspiracy theories stem from over-exaggerated or manipulated images in circulation. However, all of these claims are based on no evidence. One fraudulent image in circulation depicts a derived skull with a massive cranium, which actually originates from a hydrocephalus patient.

## Description

The Boskop Man was found with no associated artifacts or animal remains, except for one unusual stone artifact. Aside from that, no exact geological age can be discerned. The frontal is rounded with a constriction above the flat and thin supraorbital ridge. A degree of parietal bulging is present. The skull varies from 6 to 13 millimeters and the is 205 millimeters long and 150 millimeters wide. It has been called Neanderthaloid, Cromagnoid, pre-San people and similar to African skulls (in modern and in more archaic individuals in the fossil record; likely a dubious claim). It has the San-Khoisan nature, but little significance has been made of the skull because it contains no archaic traits and has an unknown locality, so all terms and classifications assigned with "*H. capensis*" or *Telanthropus* have become obsolete. The alveolar arch of SK 15 more similar to *Homo* than to *Australopithecus* sensu lato, with small fangs and no diastema. SK 15 is sometimes dated to 1.2, 1.5, 1.8 and 2 million years old. A 2022 study that used complex dental analysis confirmed that the mandible is much closer to *Paranthropus* than *Homo*.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 https://antropogenez.ru/fossil/117/
2. ↑ https://johnhawks.net/weblog/topics/photos/sk-15-photo-2016.html
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.2111212119
4. ↑ http://johnhawks.net/weblog/reviews/brain/paleo/return-amazing-boskops-lynch-granger-2009.html
5. ↑ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/four-species-of-homo-youve-never-heard-of-part-ii-156735412/
6. ↑ https://www.jstor.org/stable/2795854
7. ↑ https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ajpa.1330230105
8. ↑ https://books.google.ca/books?vid=ISBN9780471678649&redir\_esc=y
9. ↑ Gary Lynch, Richard Granger, What Happened to the Hominids Who Were Smarter Than Us? (excerpt from *Big Brain* 2008), *Discover*, 28 December 2009.
10. ↑ Various internet tall-tales, including this.
11. ↑ A Study of the Relations of the Brain to the Size of the Head *Biometrika* Volume 4
12. ↑ https://www.britannica.com/topic/Boskop-skull