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New Fossils (8): Flat-faced Man"Flat-faced man" was discovered by Meave Leakey and her research team in 1998, at Lake Turkana in Kenya, and described as a new genus - Kenyanthropus - distinct from Australopithecus [Leakey et al. 2001] . Only one specimen, 3.5 million years old, is known. The name platyops means flat face and this character is combined with possession of rather small molars and low brow ridges; this contrasts with Australopithecus species that lived at around the same time but had protruding faces, large molars and distinct brow ridges. Both types of hominid had small brains. Some scientists believe that there is insufficient basis for placing this species in its own genus, and there has been considerable disagreement about its distinctness. More fossils will be needed before it can be decided whether the flat-faced man is really a separate branch (or trunk!) of the human evolutionary tree or merely a rather specialised australopithecine. This fossil resembles Homo rudolfensis although it is a older than that potential human ancestor. It is conceivable that rudolfensis might be more reasonably placed within Kenyanthropus than within Homo [Lieberman 2001] . |