The now famous "Black Skull" was found near Kenya's Lake Turkana in 1985.

It is the cranium of a robust australopithecine, in many ways like Australopithecus boisei but with a number of features reminiscent of A. afarensis.

It is also older than any previously known robust australopithecine (2.5 million years). These links between boisei, afarensis and the Black Skull effectively disqualify A. africanus as an ancestor of the robust forms.

Yet the age and distinctiveness of the Black Skull seem (to some) to warrant taxonomic separation as Australopithecus aethiopicus in preference to classification as an early A. boisei; see [Boyd & Silk 1997] , pp 372-373.