The following readings are taken from Making Silent Stones Speak: Human Evolution and the Dawn of Technology by Kathy D. Schick and Nicholas Toth (1993).
Still, it might be appropriate to pay some tribute to this other major lineage of hominids, the robust australopithecines. With the characteristic pride or, at least, wonder we sometimes feel in the accomplishments of our own lineage, it is easy to forget that each of the robust australopithecine groups (in East Africa and in South Africa) was remarkably successful for over a million years.
This is even more impressive considering that they carried this off while coexisting with our lineage, the evolving species of Homo, in the same environments. It may even be that these large-toothed creatures were so successful that they forced our ancestors into new food niches that increasingly required the use of stone tools. They went off on their own fork in the road and lived and adapted to its consequences for at least 1.5 million years. We are still rambling down our pathway, but if we look over our shoulders at our relatives, we should realize there are no guarantees of continued survival.
The robust australopithecines may have had different niches, different foods that they would spend their days looking for and consuming, but they did overlap with Homo in time and space. They most probably were aware of the larger-brained forms, possibly saw them frequently, possibly they watched them carry out some activities on occasion
Our ancestors, the early Homo creatures, surely were aware of these massive jawed bipeds as well. They may have had some special perception of them due to the strangeness of their gait. Anyone who has spent time on the African savanna, whose senses have been honed to screen sights and sounds for signs of approaching predators and other dangers, knows how striking, how absolutely unmistakable, is the sight of a hominid walking in the distance. Perhaps our ancestors would have strained their eyes at such an approach on the horizon, picking up subtle signals that told them which biped was nearing and the appropriate action to take.
The robust australopithecines are, alas, gone, one more grand evolutionary experiment that came to an end. It would have been fascinating to have met up with them. Musings of this sort, while driving to the field in Koobi Fora a number of years ago, prompted the writing of this song by one of us (NT). It is a lament of A. boisei (originally called Zinjanthropus by the Leakeys when they found the first East African robust australopithecine fossil in 1959 at the FLK site in Bed I of Olduvai Gorge):
Zinjanthropus Blues
I got the Zinjanthropus blues
My name's been abused
They call me dumb, they call me thick
My tools don't even do the trick, oh no
I just can't take it no more
I may just do myself in
Down on the FLK floor
I got the Zinjanthropus blues
My name's been abused
From the soles of my feet to my sagittal crest
I know my lineage is the best, uh-huh
Don't gimme no big-brained buffoon
'Cause under that dome
He's just an aberrant baboon
I got the Zinjanthropus blues
Across the savannas
It's already the early Pleistocene
And I ain't seen no bananas, oh no
I never had a jolly time eatin' seeds
Tubers and roots,
They never satisfied my needs
I got the Zinjanthropus blues
I'm really bed news
I'm strong as a lion, got jaws like a croc
I'm smart as a wildebeest, may take a walk over you
I pity the fool who hassles Mr. Z
I'll give you thirty-two diastemas, instantaneously
I got the Zinjanthropus blues
My syntax is confused
I've mastered five nouns, but I'm weak on my verbs
You can't think of meat while you're browsing for herbs, oh no
It just doesn't make any sense
To contemplate extinction, please
Someone invent a future tense.