Kenyanthropus platyops - Something old or something new?

Kenyanthropus platyops Photo: Pavel Svejnar

Reconstruction of the skull has been difficult, but K. platyops seems to have had a broad flat face. The teeth show features of both humans and apes. Brain size estimates have indicated a cranial capacity of about 350 cc, about the same as that of a chimpanzee. It is unknown whether this hominid was bipedal. The fossils date to about a million years before the earliest known use of tools and long predate the first use of fire.

Although Leakey et al. (2001) erected a new genus to accommodate these fossils, there is as yet no real consensus as to whether K. platyops is even distinct from the contemporary and much better known Australopithecus afarensis. There are also those who think it's similar to Homo rudolfensis, which existed in the same geographic region, but more than a million years later. Maybe Kenyanthropus platyops actually is something new, but only time and much debate will tell.

Human Evolution Timeline >> Human Evolution Chart >> Biology Dictionary >>	Site of discovery Location of Kenya Credit: Vardion
Habitat: Woodland. Pronunciation: kehn-YAN-thruh-puhs PLAT-ee-awps. Etymology: The Greek suffix -anthropus was added to Kenya to produce Kenyanthropus, meaning "human from Kenya," and the Greek prefix platy- was added to the Greek suffix -ops to produce platyops, meaning flat-faced.
Interesting facts and information about other ancient hominids: Ardipithecus ramidus >> Australopithecus afarensis >> Australopithecus africanus >> Australopithecus anamensis >> Australopithecus bahrelghazali >> Australopithecus garhi >> Homo habilis >> Homo rudolfensis >> Homo erectus >> Homo ergaster >> Homo cepranensis >> Homo heidelbergensis >> Homo georgicus>> Homo floresiensis >> Homo rhodesiensis>> Homo neanderthalensis>> Kenyanthropus platyops >> Paranthropus aethiopicus >> Paranthropus boisei >> Paranthropus robustus >> Sahelanthropus tchadensis >> Orrorin tugenensis >>