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Abesalom Vekua,12David Lordkipanidze,1*G. Philip Rightmire,3Jordi Agusti,4Reid Ferring,5Givi Maisuradze,1Alexander Mouskhelishvili,16Medea Nioradze,7Marcia Ponce de Leon,8Martha Tappen,9Merab Tvalchrelidze,610Christoph Zollikofer8
Another hominid skull has been recovered at Dmanisi (Republic
of Georgia) from the same strata in which hominid remains havebeen
reported previously. The Dmanisi site dated to ~1.75 millionyears
ago has now produced craniofacial portions of several hominidindividuals, along with many well-preserved animal fossils andquantities of stone artifacts. Although there are certain anatomicaldifferences among the Dmanisi specimens, the hominids do not clearlyrepresent more than one taxon. We assign the new skull provisionallyto
Homo erectus (=ergaster). The Dmanisi specimens
are the mostprimitive and small-brained fossils to be grouped
with this speciesor any taxon linked unequivocally with genus
Homo and also theones most similar to the presumed
habilis-like stem. We suggestthat the ancestors of the
Dmanisi population dispersed from Africabefore the emergence of humans
identified broadly with the H.erectus grade.
1 Georgian State Museum, Georgian Academy of
Sciences, 3 Purtseladze Street, Tbilisi 380007, Georgia.
2 Institute of Paleobiology, Georgian Academy of
Sciences, Niagvris 4A, Tbilisi 380004, Georgia.
3 Department of Anthropology, Binghamton University
(State University of New York), Binghamton, NY 13902, USA.
4 Institut de Paleontologia M. Crusafont,
08201-Sabadell, Spain.
5 Department of Geography,
University of North Texas, Denton, TX 76203, USA.
6 Institute of Geography, Georgian Academy of
Sciences, M. Alexidze 1, Tbilisi 380093, Georgia.
7 Archeological Center, Georgian Academy of Science,
14 Uznadze Street, Tbilisi 380002, Georgia.
8 Anthropological Institute and MultiMedia
Laboratory, Universität Zürich-Irchel, 190 Winterthurerstrasse, CH-8057 Zürich, Switzerland.
9 Department of Anthropology, University of
Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA.
10 Institute
of Geology of Georgian Academy of Sciences, M. Alexidze 1, Tbilisi
380093, Georgia.
*
To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail:
geonathist{at}ip.osgf.ge
