New hominid discoveredIn 1959, Mary Leakey, the wife of Dr Louis Leakey, discovered an ancient hominid skull, a very significant find - the first specimen of this species. The location was the Olduvai Gorge in the Serengeti Plains of Tanganyika (now Tanzania, East Africa), where the Leakeys dedicated nearly three decades of their lives in careful exploration. The young male skull is an almost complete cranium, with a brain size is about 530-cm3. Louis Leakey briefly considered this a human ancestor, but the claim was dropped when Homo habilis was found soon afterwards. Zinjanthropus boisei (the nutcracker man) has since been reclassified (1967) as Australopithecus boisei. It has has been accurately dated to 1.8 million years BC.«* |
