The traits of the mystery mandible include small anterior/ large posterior teeth, a thick mandibular corpus, parabolic dental arcade, presence of molarized premolars, presence (and very thick) simian shelf, absence of chin, and absence of retromolar space. In accordance, these are all distinguishing traits for Australopitecus Boisei.

The Ardipithecus ramidus is distinctly not the mystery mandible because it lacks megadontia and withholds a thinner enamel than that of the mystery mandible . Ar. ramidus thin enamel is one associated with a ripe-fruit frugivory. In this way, one can conclude that Ar. ramidus avoided tough diet foods, as they did not have the heavy chewing specializations (thick mandibular corpus/ megadontia) present in the features associated with that of the mystery mandible. …show more content…
boisei and Au. robustus) possessed greatly enlarged cheek teeth and very thick enamel when compared with the ‘gracile’ Australopithecines (Au. africanus ). This increased enamel thickness is directly related to their distinct dietary adaptation. In this way, the masseter muscles and temporalis muscles (zygomatic arch) were distinctly larger and their mandible was much more robust than that of the gracile Au. africanus. Such features indicate that the robust australopithecines were consuming a hard food diet that included nuts and seeds. For this reason, since the mystery mandible also possessed an extremely thick mandible with small anterior and large posterior teeth, one can than indicate that their cheek muscles were also enlarged and thus the mystery mandible could not be Au. africanus. In this same size relation, the mystery mandible could not be Au. robustus because even though Au. robustus withheld megadontia features, Au. boisie premolar/ molar size still dominated in