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fossil profile

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A look at the Maba hominin skull

Found in 1958, the skull is one of a handful of fossil hominins from southern China that may be connected with the Denisovans.

Photo of partial skull from Maba, China, in frontal (left) and right lateral (right) view with black background
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A look at the fossil skull from Steinheim

The skull provides some of the best evidence for the ancestral population of Neandertals, and had a tumultuous history in the decades after its discovery.

Steinheim skull in grayscale image in a museum exhibit
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Fossil profile: AL 400-1 mandible and the curving line of human evolution

Australopithecus afarensis was an early member of the hominin lineage, but it was not intermediate between humans and living great apes in all ways.

AL 400-1 mandible with information
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Fossil profile: Skhūl 1 and the mixing of populations

A child's skull from Mount Carmel gives an occasion to look at the history of ideas about population mixture.

Skhūl 1 calvaria with information
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Fossil profile: Sangiran 31 and the exceptionally thick skulls of Homo erectus

One of the thickest skulls in the hominin fossil record gives insight about the variation in this ancient species.

Sangiran 31 partial cranium with information
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Fossil profile: U.W. 101-258 and humeral torsion

A humerus from the Dinaledi Chamber gives some insight into the behavior of Homo naledi.

U.W. 101-283 humerus illustration with information added
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Fossil profile: BOU-VP-16/1 and mortuary practice

A fossil from Bouri, Ethiopia, represents an individual whose skull was processed after his death.

BOU-VP-16/1 cranium with information