Small mid-Pleistocene hominin associated with East African Acheulean technology |
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| Authors: | Potts Richard Behrensmeyer Anna K Deino Alan Ditchfield Peter Clark Jennifer |
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| Institution: | Human Origins Program, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20560-0112, USA. potts.rick@nmnh.si.edu |
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| Abstract: | Hominin fossils from the African mid-Pleistocene are rare despite abundant Acheulean tools in Africa and apparently African-derived hominins in Eurasia between 1.0 and 0.5 million years ago (Ma). Here we describe an African fossil cranium constrained by 40Ar/39Ar analyses, magnetostratigraphy, and sedimentary features to 0.97 to 0.90 Ma, and stratigraphically associated with Acheulean handaxes. Although the cranium represents possibly the smallest adult or near-adult known between 1.7 and 0.5 Ma, it retains features observed in larger Homo erectus individuals, yet shows a distinct suite of traits indicative of wide population variation in the hominins of this period. |
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