A robust Australopithecine that lived about 2 million years ago. The first specimen was discovered by Mary Leaky in 1959 at Olduvai Gorge. Boisei was dubbed "Nutcracker Man" because of its great, big molars that looked to be mighty enough to crush nuts.
Like the other robust Australopithecines, Boisei had very large molars and thick jaws with tiny canines for the purpose of chomping fibers and roots. It had a fairly heavy build, and its brain size was about a third of modern man's. Boisei had a fairly pronounced sexual dimorphism. Boisei was not an ancestor of modern man, but rather evidently an offshot at some earlier point along man's lineage.