Paleoanthropologists described a skull fragment of an adult Homo erectus from the Drimolen cave in South Africa and estimated the age of the find at about 2 million years. The work by a team led by Jesse Martin from Australia’s La Trobe University was published in the journal Annals of Human Biology.
The specimen was designated DNH 127 and was recovered back in 2008, but it has only now been described in detail. It consists of parts of the right temporal, parietal, and occipital bones.
According to the researchers, the fragment may have broken off from a rock ledge where, in 1994, an almost complete skull of the paranthropus DNH 7 was found, so the find is considered to be about the same age. DNH 127 differs from paranthropes by a weakly developed mastoid process and a straight suture between the parietal and temporal bones — a trait the authors associate with Homo erectus.
Until now, the main evidence for the early presence of this species in the region had been the child’s skull DNH 134 from the same Drimolen site: it is about 2.04 million years old, and is currently the earliest undisputed appearance of Homo erectus in the fossil record. There are no well-preserved skulls of adult Homo erectus individuals in South African collections, and other Homo finds from nearby caves are too fragmentary to confidently assign them to the species.
The new find became part of an analysis of 18 skull and lower jaw bones from Drimolen: two of them were previously thought to be animal remains, 14 were assigned by the authors to the robust paranthropus, and three could not be confidently attributed to any genus. DNH 127 became the second Homo specimen from Drimolen for which a species could be determined, but the researchers describe the attribution as preliminary.
Most of all, the fragment resembles skull D2700 from Dmanisi in Georgia. The authors also write that after DNH 134, the appearance of new Homo erectus remains in Drimolen was expected, although there is still no unambiguous evidence there of the simultaneous existence of several Homo species. The researchers also urge that all found hominin remains be published, not just well-preserved ones, because even fragments help test scientific hypotheses.
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