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03/26/2006:

"Scientists say fossilised skull from Ethiopia could be missing link"

Scientists in Ethiopia have discovered a hominid skull that could be a missing link between Homo erectus and modern man.

The hominid cranium was found in two pieces and is believed to be between 500,000 and 250,000 years old. Sileshi Semaw, the director of the Gona Paleoanthropological Research Project in Ethiopia, said it came "from a significant period and is close to the appearance of the anatomically modern human".

Archaeologists found the cranium at Gawis, in Ethiopia's north-eastern Afar region, five weeks ago, Dr Semaw said.

An Ethiopian palaeoanthropologist at Indiana University, Dr Semaw said that most fossil hominids were found in pieces. By contrast, the near-complete skull had provided a wealth of information.

...The face and cranium of the fossil are recognisably different from that of modern humans, but it offers unmistakable anatomical evidence that it belongs in our ancestry, Dr Semaw said.
independent.co.uk