Homo Rudolfensis Gets More Fossil Evidence

In news that we’re sure will absolutely not be showing up on Fox News at all, Meave Leakey and her colleagues have found more evidence of homo rudolfensis: a lower jaw, jaw fragments, and best of all a complete skull with rudolfensis‘ signature flat face.

Some back story: home rudolfensis has largely been a theoretical early hominid until now. An upper skull was discovered in 1972 near Lake Rudolf. And… well… that was it. Few other fossils had been found.

Now, of course, the story is a lot different. With the jaws we can start working on what kind of hominid rudolfensis actually was. It’s also an important find because it demonstrates there was more than one early hominid wandering the plains of Africa: homo habilis and homo erectus were also there, meaning human evolution likely came from a mix of these three species getting it on.

In short, a pretty major piece of our past just fell into place. Now let’s hear Fox News insist it’s just a bunch of glued-together rocks!

image courtesy Durova and Wikimedia Commons

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