Life historyLife history research seeks to explain the varied strategies among organisms for the allocation of energetic and other resources through a species lifetime. One of the key questions in paleoanthropology is about the evolution of the prolonged period of growth and developmentDevelopment in modern humans, but recent research has illuminated the diversity in life history schedules and strategies among extant apes which are used to reconstruct life history in extinct hominins. This paper explores this broad-level approach to life history reconstruction in early hominins, focusing on the genus Paranthropus. In line with models involving high-risk environmentsEnvironment and low quality dispersed dietary resources, key developmental events during a Paranthropus juvenile’sJuvenile lifetime likely occurred at younger ages and over shorter durations of time, constituting a uniquely adapted life historyLife history in the genus compared to extant apes and other extinct hominins.