Researchers, led by Georgian National Museum anthropologist David Lordkipanidze,
first found the complete lower jaw of a fossil human in 2000. The
cranium turned up five years later, at the fossil-rich Dmanisi site 96
miles southwest of Tbilisi, and is now being reported in the journal Science.
"It was discovered on August 5, 2005—in fact, on my
birthday," Lordkipanidze says. He adds that the fossil's importance was
clear as soon as the team saw it, but required eight years of
preparatory analysis.
That is because Skull 5 is what paleoanthropologists often
refer to as a "mosaic," or mixture of features seen in earlier and later
humans. The skull's face, large teeth, and small brain size resemble
those of earlier fossil humans, but the detailed anatomy of its
braincase—which gives clues to the wiring of the brain—is similar to
that of a more recent early human species called Homo erectus. This combination of features has fueled a long-running discussion over whether the Dmanisi humans were an early form of Homo erectus, a distinct species called Homo georgicus, or something else.
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