Fossils: Human ancestors were a diverse bunch (pp 201-204; N&V)
New fossils aged between 1.78 and 1.95 million years old from northern Kenya that provide evidence that early Homo, the group ancestral to modern humans, was a diverse genus are described in this week’s Nature. Comparison of the newly discovered face, mandible and mandible fragment with other fossils confirms that there were at least two different species of early Homo in the area. These findings help us to build a better picture of what these species looked like.
A skull known as KNM-ER 1470, found in 1972 in Kenya has been at the centre of the debate over the number of species of early Homo present at this time (the early Pleistocene epoch). KNM-ER 1470 is larger and has a flatter face than other specimens attributed to early Homo but making comparisons is difficult because the skull lacks teeth and its mandible. The new fossils described by Meave Leakey, Fred Spoor and colleagues provide information about these important features, showing that KNM-ER 1470 and the new finds are indeed part of a separate species of early Homo, that stands out from other forms by a uniquely built face.
CONTACT
Meave Leakey (Turkana Basin Institute, Nairobi, Kenya)
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Fred Spoor (Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany)
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Bernard Wood (George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA) N&V author
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