Uploaded April 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

---

We've all got that one cousin who doesn't look like the rest of the family, and our ancestors were no exception. Meet Paranthropus, the group of hominins so strange that researchers nicknamed one of them Nutcracker Man. Here's the whole story of our weirdest looking ancestors.

Hosted by: Savannah Geary (they/them)

Correction:
1:17 The species name should read Paranthropus boisei.
----------
Support us for $8/month on Patreon and keep SciShow going!
patreon.com/scishow
Or support us directly: complexly.com/support
Join our SciShow email list to get the latest news and highlights:
https://mailchi.mp/scishow/email
----------
Huge thanks go to the following Patreon supporters for helping us keep SciShow free for everyone forever: Eric Jensen, Garrett Galloway, Jp Lynch, Toyas Dhake, Lyndsay Brown, Friso, Cye Stoner, Chris Mackey, Jeremy Mattern, Matt Curls, Chris Curry, Fahmy Issa, Reed Spilmann, David Johnston, J.V. Rosenbalm, Jaap Westera, Blood Doctor Kelly, Adam Brainard, Bethany Matthews, Piya Shedden, Jason A Saslow, Joseph Ruf, Kevin Bealer, Kevin Knupp, Alex Hackman, Chris Peters, Steve Gums
----------
Looking for SciShow elsewhere on the internet?
SciShow Tangents Podcast: scishow-tangents.simplecast.com
TikTok: tiktok.com/@scishow
Instagram: instagram.com/thescishow
Facebook: facebook.com/scishow
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/scishow.bsky.social

#SciShow #science #education #learning #complexly
----------
Sources: docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vT7FQ5bdg_6dkZPmPPRiSE3QaQGVGQ8xOa_tgq5hJUsYJ_QhzMTQZSaHF8v3oquO7d8PvIZYkADvmTX/pub