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Early Homo erectus skeleton from west Lake Turkana, Kenya

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Abstract

The most complete early hominid skeleton ever found was discovered at Nariokotome III, west Lake Turkana, Kenya, and excavated in situ in sediments dated close to 1.6 Myr. The specimen, KNM-WT 15000, is a male Homo erectus that died at 12 ± 1 years of age, as judged by human standards, but was already 1.68 m tall. Although human-like in many respects, this specimen documents important anatomical differences between H. erectus and modern humans for the first time.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, 84112, USA

    Frank Brown

  2. Los Angeles County Museum, Los Angeles, California, 90007, USA

    John Harris

  3. National Museums of Kenya, Box 40658, Nairobi, Kenya

    Richard Leakey

  4. Department of Cell Biology and Anatomy, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, 21205, USA

    Alan Walker

Authors
  1. Frank Brown
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  2. John Harris
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  3. Richard Leakey
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  4. Alan Walker
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Brown, F., Harris, J., Leakey, R. et al. Early Homo erectus skeleton from west Lake Turkana, Kenya. Nature 316, 788–792 (1985). https://doi.org/10.1038/316788a0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/316788a0

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