2.9 to 3.6 MYA. Australopithecus afarensis is the best represented early hominin with approximately 100 fossils representing the species. The australopithecines are only known to have existed in Africa; none has ever been found in Europe or Asia. They had ape-sized brains: their cranial capacity ranged from 375 to 530 cc. They had strong jaws with large teeth. Like modern gorillas, they were sexually dimorphic, in other words, the males were larger than the females. Our BH-001-EC A. afarensis cranium is a generalized representation of a male afarensis—it's not reflective of any one specimen.
1.9 MYA. The Homo habilis Skull KNM-ER 1813 was discovered by K. Kimeu in 1973 at Koobi Fora, Kenya, and described by R. Leakey in Nature in 1973. There is still controversy about this specimen's classification, with some scientists opting to classify it as an australopithecine and others believing it is a species of Homo. Some paleoanthropologists have raised the possibility that KNM-ER 1813 is the female counterpart to the Homo rudolfensis KNM-ER 1470. While dated to the same time period and sharing some characteristics, KNM-ER 1813 has a much smaller face, brain and teeth than 1470. Other paleoanthropologists argue that its brain size of 510 cc (in contrast to 1470's 750 cc) indicates a size difference too great to be due to sexual dimorphism and represents a separate species. It's also not the case that this specimen is simply an immature version of H. rudolfensis, as the third molar appears to have been worn down. Instead, it has been suggested that it belongs in a category of Homo habilis, with which it shares similarities in tooth size and shape, cranium size, and face shape.
300,000 to 600,000 YA. The Homo erectus skull Peking Man is also known as Pithecanthropus pekinensis (Sinanthropus). An example of H. erectus discovered in 1923-27 in Zhoukoudian, near Beijing, China. Due to the presence of animal remains, and evidence of fire and tool usage, Peking Man was originally described as a hunter and the first tool-worker. This interpretation was challenged in 1985, with the proposal that Peking Man be classified as a scavenger. The original specimens were last seen in 1941. They were crated and ship bound, first to northern China, with the intention to continue to the United States Natural History Museum in New York, but the fossils vanished en route.
40,000-73,000 BP. Shanidar 1, a nearly complete skeleton of an adult male, was discovered by a team led by Ralph Solecki in 1957 in northern Iraq. This individual was approximately 40-45 years of age and likely died as a result of a rock fall into the cave where the remains were found (Solecki 1957). This individual survived many traumatic injuries during his life time including healed fractures to the left side of the skull and eye socket and a crippling injury to the right side, causing atrophy of the right humerus (see KO-064), radius and ulna. Though the sequence of the assorted traumas of this individual are uncertain, it is thought that they occurred years before his death, which suggests some type of altruistic care among Neanderthals.