Newly Described Olduvai Hominid

Abstract

IN their recent article in Nature¹, on “A New Species of the genus Homo from Olduvai Gorge”, L. S. B. Leakey, P. V. Tobias and J. R. Napier refer to the specimens (from Swartkrans, Transvaal) originally described by Broom and Robinson (1949) as Telanthropus capensis but later referred by Robinson (1961) to Homo erectus Dubois sp. (1894). Leakey et al. give as their opinion that T. capensis “may well prove, on closer comparative investigation, to belong to Homo habilis”. However, if the Olduvai hominid proved to be conspecific with the Swartkrans form, the name capensis would have priority over habilis, not vice versa. Similarly, should the new hominid be conspecific with the Kanam mandible (which we think unlikely), the specific name kanamensis Leakey, 1935, would have priority.