Blow to Multiple Human Species Idea
he Dmanisi collection also represents the earliest evidence of primitive humans outside Africa, a group that emerged soon after early Homo diverged from Australopithecus, or “Lucy”.
“We now have the best evidence for what early Homo really is,” said lead author David Lordkipanidze from the Georgian National Museum in Tbilisi, Georgia.
“One of the most important things is that we have such a remarkable collection; it’s very rare that you have that from one site.”
The fossil remains showed a lot of variation that had previously puzzled researchers, but Prof Lordkipanidze said it was clear that these features were all from one population.
“When we looked at this variability and compared it with modern humans, you can see this is a normal range of variation,” Prof Lordkipanidze told BBC News.
The skull was uncovered eight years ago and since then the team has compared it to other Homo fossils found in Africa from as early as 2.4 million years ago.
The comparative analysis of the hominid cranium revealed enough similarities for the team to consider the earliest Homo fossils as the same species as the Dmanisi hominids.