A rare glimpse of an early human face
Gibbons, A.
Science 274(5291): 1298
1996
ISSN/ISBN: 0036-8075 PMID: 8966597 Document Number: 463858
An international team of researchers recently reported finding a Homo jaw that is reliably dated by radiometric techniques at about 2.33 million years old. The jaw was discovered in November 1994 on a barren slope at Hadar in northern Ethiopia. Although the specimen is insufficient on its own to determine which species of Homo came first, it might help demonstrate which anatomical characteristics were inherited from an australopithecine ancestor and which ones originated in Homo itself, says paleoanthropologist William H. Kimbel, a member of the team.