Overview
- An international team led by Dr. Karen Baab published a digital reconstruction of the DAN5 fossil in Nature Communications, detailing a cranium from Gona, Ethiopia dated to roughly 1.5–1.6 million years ago.
- Researchers used high-resolution micro-CT scans and 3D virtual reassembly to join four facial fragments to a previously described braincase, yielding the most complete Early Pleistocene cranium from the Horn of Africa.
- The specimen shows a mosaic of features, including a braincase consistent with Homo erectus alongside a relatively flat nasal bridge, large molars, and an overall more archaic face.
- The individual is directly associated with both Oldowan tools and early Acheulian handaxes, representing among the earliest documented overlaps of these technologies with a hominin fossil.
- The findings underscore substantial early Homo variability, challenge simple out-of-Africa anatomical narratives, and prompt calls for more 1–2 million-year-old fossils and comparisons with early European material such as Homo antecessor.