Skull found in Ethiopia could be a missing link

Skull found in Ethiopia could be a missing link

March 26, 2006

BY DAGNACHEW TEKLU

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia -- Scientists in northeastern Ethiopia said Saturday 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 500,000 and 250,000 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.

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

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

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

AP