Small skull in Ethiopia may be missing link

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia – Scientists in northeastern Ethiopia said Saturday that they have discovered the skull of a small human ancestor that could be a missing link between the extinct Homo erectus and modern man.

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

Archaeologists found the early human cranium five weeks ago at Gawis in Ethiopia’s northeastern Afar region, Sileshi said.

Several stone tools and fossilized animals including two types of pigs, zebras, elephants, antelopes, cats and rodents were also found at the site.

Sileshi, an Ethiopian paleoanthropologist based at Indiana University, said most fossil hominids are found in pieces, but the near-complete skull – a rare find – provided a wealth of information.

Homo erectus, which many believe was an ancestor of modern Homo sapiens, is thought to have died out 100,000 to 200,000 years ago.

The face and cranium of the fossil are recognizably different from those of modern humans but bear unmistakable anatomical evidence that it belongs to the modern human’s ancestry, Sileshi said.