Wesleyan University Archaeology & Anthropology Collections Hominin Fossil Casts
Species Designation: Homo rudolfensis (habilis) ID/ Nickname: KNM-ER 1470 Date: 1.8 million years ago Catalog #: 2004-11-9 a and b Description: cranium (in two pieces)

Context of Discovery:

Discovered at Koobi Fora, Kenya by Bernard Ngeneo (a member of Richard Leakey's team) in August 1972. It was a fairly complete cranium, but missing teeth.

Facts about "KNM-ER 1470":

This is the type specimen of the species, Homo rudolfensis. It has a cranial capacity of 775cc. Compared to KNM-ER 1813, which was found in the same region, ER 1470 has a much longer face, with the upper part narrower than the middle; the maxilla (jaw) is squared off rather than rounded; there is a slight supraorbital torus across the forehead, but no depression behind it; and there is evidence of large molars.  Although there have been debates about assigning ER 1470 to H. habilis, many researchers now place it within the species H. rudolfensis along with several other early human fossils that had previously been assigned to H. habilis.