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D3444 & D3900 The site of Dmanisi in Georgia has been the source of many amazing hominin finds, including 5 well-preserved skulls usually considered to be Homo erectus. Some have proposed a separate species, Homo georgicus, but this name hasn’t really be used much. At 1.8 mya, they are the first fossil evidence of hominins outside of Africa. {“x”:{“options”:{“crs”:{“crsClass”:“L.CRS.EPSG3857”,“code”:null,“proj4def”:null,“projectedBounds”:null,“options”:{}}},“calls”:[{“method”:“addTiles”,“args”:[“//{s}.tile.openstreetmap.org/{z}/{x}/{y}.png”,null,null,{“minZoom”:0,“maxZoom”:18,“tileSize”:256,“subdomains”:“abc”,“errorTileUrl”:“”,“tms”:false,“noWrap”:false,“zoomOffset”:0,“zoomReverse”:false,“opacity”:1,“zIndex”:1,“detectRetina”:false,“attribution”:”© OpenStreetMap contributors, CC-BY-SA”}]},{“method”:“addMarkers”,“args”:[41.316667,44.35,null,null,null,{“interactive”:true,“draggable”:false,“keyboard”:true,“title”:“”,“alt”:“”,“zIndexOffset”:0,“opacity”:1,“riseOnHover”:false,“riseOffset”:250},“aprox location of Dmanisi”

KNM-WT 15000 This fairly complete skeleton of a young boy was found by Kamoya Kimeu in 1984 in Nariokotome, Kenya. It is about ~1.6 MYA and is known by various names such as Nariokotome Boy, Turkana Boy, and WT 15K. The cranium is ~ 880 cm3 but may have reached a total size of closer to 900 cm3 if he lived to adulthood. He has smaller teeth than seen in earlier members of the genus Homo.

KNM-ER 1813 was found by ledgendary fossil hunter Kamoya Kimeu. Like KNM-ER 1470, this fossil comes from the Koobi Fora region of Tanzania and dates to around 1.9 mya. {“x”:{“options”:{“crs”:{“crsClass”:“L.CRS.EPSG3857”,“code”:null,“proj4def”:null,“projectedBounds”:null,“options”:{}}},“calls”:[{“method”:“addTiles”,“args”:[“//{s}.tile.openstreetmap.org/{z}/{x}/{y}.png”,null,null,{“minZoom”:0,“maxZoom”:18,“tileSize”:256,“subdomains”:“abc”,“errorTileUrl”:“”,“tms”:false,“noWrap”:false,“zoomOffset”:0,“zoomReverse”:false,“opacity”:1,“zIndex”:1,“detectRetina”:false,“attribution”:”© OpenStreetMap contributors, CC-BY-SA”}]},{“method”:“addMarkers”,“args”:[3.947778,36.187222,null,null,null,{“interactive”:true,“draggable”:false,“keyboard”:true,“title”:“”,“alt”:“”,“zIndexOffset”:0,“opacity”:1,“riseOnHover”:false,“riseOffset”:250},“aprox location of KNM-ER 1813”,null,null,null,null,{“interactive”:false,“permanent”:false,“direction”:“auto”,“opacity”:1,“offset”:[0,0],“textsize”:“10px”,“textOnly”:false,“className”:“”,“sticky”:true},null]}],“limits”:{“lat”:[3.947778,3.947778],“lng”:[36.187222,36.187222]},“setView”:[[3.9,36],2,[]]},“evals”:[],“jsHooks”:[]} Its cranial capacity is ~ 510 cm3, mich smaller than 1470’s and part of the reason that the skulls have been placed into two different species.

KNM-ER 1470 There is a lot that can be said about this fossil. Found in 1972 by Bernard Ngeneo it, like OH 5, has attained a sort of iconic status in the field. It was found in Koobi Fora, a region of Kenya on the eastern part of Lake Turkana1 {“x”:{“options”:{“crs”:{“crsClass”:“L.CRS.EPSG3857”,“code”:null,“proj4def”:null,“projectedBounds”:null,“options”:{}}},“calls”:[{“method”:“addTiles”,“args”:[“//{s}.tile.openstreetmap.org/{z}/{x}/{y}.png”,null,null,{“minZoom”:0,“maxZoom”:18,“tileSize”:256,“subdomains”:“abc”,“errorTileUrl”:“”,“tms”:false,“noWrap”:false,“zoomOffset”:0,“zoomReverse”:false,“opacity”:1,“zIndex”:1,“detectRetina”:false,“attribution”:”© OpenStreetMap contributors, CC-BY-SA”}]},{“method”:“addMarkers”,“args”:[3.947778,36.187222,null,null,null,{“interactive”:true,“draggable”:false,“keyboard”:true,“title”:“”,“alt”:“”,“zIndexOffset”:0,“opacity”:1,“riseOnHover”:false,“riseOffset”:250},“aprox location of KNM-ER 1470”,null,null,null,null,{“interactive”:false,“permanent”:false,“direction”:“auto”,“opacity”:1,“offset”:[0,0],“textsize”:“10px”,“textOnly”:false,“className”:“”,“sticky”:true},null]}],“limits”:{“lat”:[3.947778,3.947778],“lng”:[36.187222,36.187222]},“setView”:[[3.9,36],2,[]]},“evals”:[],“jsHooks”:[]} When it was found it was in over 100 pieces and had to be pieced together (imagine doing a 3d jigsaw puzzle where you don’t have all the pieces and not really sure what the final image is supposed to be).

OH 5 This cranium was found by Mary Leakey1 in July of 1959 in Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania. Due to its historical significance as one of the first Australopiths found by the Leakey’s it has a sort of iconic place in human origins research. Heck, they apparently even sell Zinj keychains. When first announced, it was placed in the species Zinjanthropus boisei, though nowadays it is often called either Australopithecus boisei or Paranthropus boisei2.

LD-350-1 Discovered in 2013 by Chalachew Seyoum at the Ledi-Geraru research area in Ethiopia, this 2.8-2.75 mya left mandible preserves parts of the canine, the 2 premolars and the 3 molars. It has been proposed to be a member of the genus Homo, making it the earliest known specimen of our genus. {“x”:{“options”:{“crs”:{“crsClass”:“L.CRS.EPSG3857”,“code”:null,“proj4def”:null,“projectedBounds”:null,“options”:{}}},“calls”:[{“method”:“addTiles”,“args”:[“//{s}.tile.openstreetmap.org/{z}/{x}/{y}.png”,null,null,{“minZoom”:0,“maxZoom”:18,“tileSize”:256,“subdomains”:“abc”,“errorTileUrl”:“”,“tms”:false,“noWrap”:false,“zoomOffset”:0,“zoomReverse”:false,“opacity”:1,“zIndex”:1,“detectRetina”:false,“attribution”:”© OpenStreetMap contributors, CC-BY-SA”}]},{“method”:“addMarkers”,“args”:[11.25,40.7,null,null,null,{“interactive”:true,“draggable”:false,“keyboard”:true,“title”:“”,“alt”:“”,“zIndexOffset”:0,“opacity”:1,“riseOnHover”:false,“riseOffset”:250},“aprox location of ld-350-1”,null,null,null,null,{“interactive”:false,“permanent”:false,“direction”:“auto”,“opacity”:1,“offset”:[0,0],“textsize”:“10px”,“textOnly”:false,“className”:“”,“sticky”:true},null]}],“limits”:{“lat”:[11.25,11.25],“lng”:[40.7,40.7]},“setView”:[[11.25,40.7],2,[]]},“evals”:[],“jsHooks”:[]} As it was found close to Hadar, where many A.

ARA-VP-¹²⁄₁₃₀ This specimen, found by Haile-Selassie in 1997 in Afar depression, Ethiopia, is described in a paper by Berhane Asfaw and colleagues in 1999. It consists of cranial fragments from the frontal, parietals, and the maxilla with much of the dentition. {“x”:{“options”:{“crs”:{“crsClass”:“L.CRS.EPSG3857”,“code”:null,“proj4def”:null,“projectedBounds”:null,“options”:{}}},“calls”:[{“method”:“addTiles”,“args”:[“//{s}.tile.openstreetmap.org/{z}/{x}/{y}.png”,null,null,{“minZoom”:0,“maxZoom”:18,“tileSize”:256,“subdomains”:“abc”,“errorTileUrl”:“”,“tms”:false,“noWrap”:false,“zoomOffset”:0,“zoomReverse”:false,“opacity”:1,“zIndex”:1,“detectRetina”:false,“attribution”:”© OpenStreetMap contributors, CC-BY-SA”}]},{“method”:“addMarkers”,“args”:[11.97194,42.89861,null,null,null,{“interactive”:true,“draggable”:false,“keyboard”:true,“title”:“”,“alt”:“”,“zIndexOffset”:0,“opacity”:1,“riseOnHover”:false,“riseOffset”:250},“aprox location of Gahri”,null,null,null,null,{“interactive”:false,“permanent”:false,“direction”:“auto”,“opacity”:1,“offset”:[0,0],“textsize”:“10px”,“textOnly”:false,“className”:“”,“sticky”:true},null]}],“limits”:{“lat”:[11.97194,11.97194],“lng”:[42.89861,42.89861]},“setView”:[[11.97194,42.89861],2,[]]},“evals”:[],“jsHooks”:[]} As you can see, the lower part of the face is fairly prognathic. The cranial capacity is ~450 cm3 and the cranium has marked post-orbital constriction, in which the part of the skull behind the eyes is narrowed.

StW-573 (Little Foot) The StW-573 specimen has been the subject of a lot of attention and controversy. Parts of this skeleton were first identified by Ron Clarke in the 1990s when looking in boxes from previous excavations at Sterkfontein, a cave site in South Africa. Later Stephen Motsumi & Nkwane Molefe (seen in the image below) found the contact from where the bone fragment had been blasted off by lime miners well over 60 years previously.

Taung child! Like Lucy, Taung places a central role in the history of the study of human evolution. In the 1900s miners in South Africa would use explosives to blow up areas of these mines. During this, they would sometimes come across fossils and save them. Luckily for students of human evolution, Josephine Salmons was visiting a friend who happened to have one of the fossils in their house & she recognized it as a primate.

A.L.-288-1 It is hard to discuss the relevance of A.L.-288-1 (aka Lucy) in only a few words. There is little doubt that Lucy is one of the most famous hominin fossils ever found. The story of its discovery by Tom Gray & Don Johanson, has been told in countless places, including a best-selling book. Rather than even attempt to do her justice, here are just a few facts that might not be as well known