Letter | Published:

Reconstructed Homo habilis type OH 7 suggests deep-rooted species diversity in early Homo

Nature 519, 83–86 (05 March 2015) | Download Citation

Subjects

Abstract

Besides Homo erectus (sensu lato), the eastern African fossil record of early Homo has been interpreted as representing either a single variable species, Homo habilis1, or two species2,3,4,5,6. In the latter case, however, there is no consensus over the respective groupings, and which of the two includes OH 7, the 1.8-million-year-old H. habilis holotype7. This partial skull and hand from Olduvai Gorge remains pivotal to evaluating the early evolution of the Homo lineage, and by priority names one or other of the two taxa. However, the distorted preservation of the diagnostically important OH 7 mandible has hindered attempts to compare this specimen with other fossils8,9. Here we present a virtual reconstruction of the OH 7 mandible, and compare it to other early Homo fossils. The reconstructed mandible is remarkably primitive, with a long and narrow dental arcade more similar to Australopithecus afarensis than to the derived parabolic arcades of Homo sapiens or H. erectus. We find that this shape variability is not consistent with a single species of early Homo. Importantly, the jaw morphology of OH 7 is incompatible with fossils assigned to Homo rudolfensis8 and with the A.L. 666-1 Homo maxilla. The latter is morphologically more derived than OH 7 but 500,000 years older10, suggesting that the H. habilis lineage originated before 2.3 million years ago, thus marking deep-rooted species diversity in the genus Homo. We also reconstructed the parietal bones of OH 7 and estimated its endocranial volume. At between 729 and 824 ml it is larger than any previously published value, and emphasizes the near-complete overlap in brain size among species of early Homo. Our results clarify the H. habilis hypodigm, but raise questions about its phylogenetic relationships. Differences between species of early Homo appear to be characterized more by gnathic diversity than by differences in brain size, which was highly variable within all taxa.

Access optionsAccess options

Rent or Buy article

Get time limited or full article access on ReadCube.

from$8.99

Rent or Buy

All prices are NET prices.

References

  1. 1.

    Olduvai Gorge Volume 4: The Skulls and Endocasts of Homo habilis (Cambridge Univ. Press, 1991)

  2. 2.

    in Major Topics in Primate and Human Evolution (eds , & ) 266–294 (Cambridge Univ. Press, 1986)

  3. 3.

    , & A probabilistic approach to the problem of sexual dimorphism in Homo habilis: a comparison of KNM-ER 1470 and KNM-ER 1813. J. Hum. Evol. 17, 503–511 (1988)

  4. 4.

    Origin and evolution of the genus Homo. Nature 355, 783–790 (1992)

  5. 5.

    Variation among early Homo crania from Olduvai Gorge and the Koobi Fora region. Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. 90, 1–33 (1993)

  6. 6.

    et al. Late Pliocene Homo and hominid land use from western Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania. Science 299, 1217–1221 (2003)

  7. 7.

    , & A new species of the genus Homo from Olduvai Gorge. Nature 202, 7–9 (1964)

  8. 8.

    et al. New fossils from Koobi Fora, northern Kenya, confirm taxonomic diversity in early Homo. Nature 488, 201–204 (2012)

  9. 9.

    , & Evolution of early Homo: an integrated biological perspective. Science 345, (2014)

  10. 10.

    , & Systematic assessment of a maxilla of Homo from Hadar, Ethiopia. Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. 103, 235–262 (1997)

  11. 11.

    New finds at Olduvai Gorge. Nature 189, 649–650 (1961)

  12. 12.

    & The human fossil record, Vol. 2 (Wiley-Liss, 2003)

  13. 13.

    et al. A complete skull from Dmanisi, Georgia, and the evolutionary biology of early Homo. Science 342, 326–331 (2013)

  14. 14.

    Cranial capacity in anthropoid apes, Australopithecus and Homo habilis, with comments on skewed samples. S. Afr. J. Sci. 64, 81–91 (1968)

  15. 15.

    New endocranial values for the East African early hominids. Nature 243, 97–99 (1973)

  16. 16.

    The OH 7 (Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania) hominid partial brain endocast revisited. Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. 53, 267–274 (1980)

  17. 17.

    Cranial capacity estimates for Olduvai Hominid 7. Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. 56, 297–304 (1981)

  18. 18.

    The OH 7 (Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania) parietal fragments and their reconstruction: a reply to Wolpoff. Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. 60, 505–516 (1983)

  19. 19.

    , & An alternative method of estimating the cranial capacity of Olduvai Hominid 7. Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. 65, 71–81 (1984)

  20. 20.

    , & The human fossil record, Vol. 3 (Wiley-Liss., 2004)

  21. 21.

    et al. Implications of new early Homo fossils from Ileret, east of Lake Turkana, Kenya. Nature 448, 688–691 (2007)

  22. 22.

    et al. Improved age control on early Homo fossils from the upper Burgi Member at Koobi Fora, Kenya. J. Hum. Evol. 65, 731–745 (2013)

  23. 23.

    ‘Homo rudolfensis’ Alexeev, 1986 – fact or phantom? J. Hum. Evol. 36, 115–118 (1999)

  24. 24.

    Evolution of the human head (Harvard Univ. Press, 2011)

  25. 25.

    , , , & The raw and the stolen. Cooking and the ecology of human origins Curr. Anthropol. 40, 567–594 (1999)

  26. 26.

    et al. Myosin gene mutation correlates with anatomical changes in the human lineage. Nature 428, 415–418 (2004)

  27. 27.

    , & Effects of brain evolution on human nutrition and metabolism. Annu. Rev. Nutr. 27, 311–327 (2007)

  28. 28.

    , , & On the relationships of postcanine tooth size with dietary quality and brain volume in primates: implications for hominin evolution. BioMed Res. Int. 2014, 1–11 (2014)

  29. 29.

    A Homo habilis maxilla and other newly-discovered hominid fossils from Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania. J. Hum. Evol. (2012)

  30. 30.

    , , , & Principles for the virtual reconstruction of hominin crania. J. Hum. Evol. 57, 48–62 (2009)

  31. 31.

    & The cranial base of Australopithecus afarensis: new insights from the female skull. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B 365, 3365–3376 (2010)

  32. 32.

    , & Statistical assessment of bilateral symmetry of shapes. Biometrika 87, 285–300 (2000)

  33. 33.

    & Extensions of the Procrustes method for the optimal superimposition of landmarks. Syst. Zool. 39, 40–59 (1990)

  34. 34.

    Koobi Fora Research Project, vol. 4. Hominid Cranial Remains. (Clarendon Press, 1991)

  35. 35.

    , & The pattern of endocranial ontogenetic shape changes in humans. J. Anat. 215, 240–255 (2009)

  36. 36.

    , & Endocranial shape changes during growth in chimpanzees and humans: a morphometric analysis of unique and shared aspects. J. Hum. Evol. 59, 555–566 (2010)

  37. 37.

    , , & A shared pattern of postnatal endocranial development in extant hominoids. Evol. Biol. 41, 572–594 (2014)

  38. 38.

    , & in Modern Morphometrics in Physical Anthropology (ed. ) 73–98 (Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, 2005)

  39. 39.

    Generalized Procrustes analysis. Pyschometrika 40, 33–51 (1975)

  40. 40.

    & Extensions of the Procrustes method for the optimal superimposition of landmarks. Syst. Zool. 39, 40–59 (1990)

  41. 41.

    , , , & Comparison of cranial ontogenetic trajectories among great apes and humans. J. Hum. Evol. 46, 679–697 (2004)

  42. 42.

    , , & Endocranial volume of Australopithecus africanus: new CT-based estimates and the effects of missing data and small sample size. J. Hum. Evol. 62, 498–510 (2012)

  43. 43.

    Brain growth, life history, and cognition in primate and human evolution. Am. J. Primatol. 62, 139–164 (2004)

  44. 44.

    Brain size growth and life history in human evolution. Evol. Biol. 39, 587–599 (2012)

  45. 45.

    et al. The mismeasure of science: Stephen Jay Gould versus Samuel George Morton on skulls and bias. PLoS Biol. 9, e1001071 (2011)

  46. 46.

    Australian & Asian Palaeoanthropology; Research resources. (2014)

  47. 47.

    Über das Hirngewicht des Menschen. (Teubner, Leipzig, 1902)

  48. 48.

    et al. Endocranial volumes of primate species: scaling analyses using a comprehensive and reliable data set. J. Hum. Evol. 55, 967–978 (2008)

  49. 49.

    Age-changes in the chimpanzee, with special reference to growth of brain, eruption of teeth, and estimation of age; with a note on the Taung ape. Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond. 1, 1–42 (1928)

  50. 50.

    , , , & Brief communication: endocranial volumes in an ontogenetic sample of chimpanzees from the Taï Forest National Park, Ivory Coast. Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. 147, 319–325 (2012)

  51. 51.

    , & Isotopic evidence for contrasting diets of early hominins Homo habilis and Australopithecus boisei of Tanzania. S. Afr. J. Sci. 104, 153–155 (2008)

Download references

Acknowledgements

We thank the National Museum of Tanzania, the Tanzania Commission for Science and Technology and the National Museums of Kenya for giving access to fossils in their care, and the Imaging Plus Medical Centre, Dar es Salaam, for CT scanning facilities. We are grateful to M. Leakey, L. Leakey, J.-J. Hublin and S. Antón for support and encouragement, and to R. Blumenschine, P. Corujo, R. David, P. Gokarn, W. Kimbel, K. Kupczik, R. Leakey, J. Lewis, E. Mbua, R. McCarthy, M. Meyer, P. Mitteroecker, P. Msemwa, J. Njau, D. Reinhardt, L. Schroeder, M. Skinner, A. Stoessel, A. Strauss, H. Temming and B. Wood for help with aspects of this study. Research was supported by the Max Planck Society.

Author information

    • Fred Spoor
    •  & Philipp Gunz

    These authors contributed equally to this work.

Affiliations

  1. Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, 04103 Leipzig, Germany

    • Fred Spoor
    • , Philipp Gunz
    • , Simon Neubauer
    • , Stefanie Stelzer
    •  & Nadia Scott

  2. Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, UK

    • Fred Spoor
    •  & M. Christopher Dean

  3. Museum and House of Culture, National Museum of Tanzania, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

    • Amandus Kwekason

Authors

  1. Search for Fred Spoor in:

  2. Search for Philipp Gunz in:

  3. Search for Simon Neubauer in:

  4. Search for Stefanie Stelzer in:

  5. Search for Nadia Scott in:

  6. Search for Amandus Kwekason in:

  7. Search for M. Christopher Dean in:

Contributions

F.S., S.N., S.S., N.S., A.K. and C.D. collected data. F.S., P.G., S.N. and C.D. performed analyses. F.S. wrote the paper, with contributions from P.G., S.N. and C.D.

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Fred Spoor or Philipp Gunz.

Extended data

Extended data figures

  1. 1.

    Reconstruction of the OH 7 mandible.

  2. 2.

    The OH 7 anterior corpus and landmarks of the dental arcade.

  3. 3.

    The reconstructed OH 7 mandible.

  4. 4.

    Shape analysis of mandibular and maxillary dental arcades.

  5. 5.

    Shape analysis of mandibular and maxillary dental arcades.

  6. 6.

    Comparisons of OH 7 mandible.

  7. 7.

    Allometry and dental arcade shape.

  8. 8.

    Wireframes of maxillary dental arcades.

  9. 9.

    Reconstruction uncertainty of the maxillary dental arcade.

  10. 10.

    OH 7 parietal reconstructions and ECV estimation.

Supplementary information

PDF files

  1. 1.

    Supplementary Information

    This file contains Supplementary Methods, Supplementary Notes 1-5, Supplementary Table 4 and additional references, which comprise as follows: a description of the reconstruction of the OH 7 mandible; an evaluation of the age at death of OH 7; a description of the dental arcade changes associated with the principal components; a discussion of the last appearance date of H. habilis; a comparison of the dental crown size and corpus size of Homo habilis and Australopithecus afarensis; and measurements of the mandibular and parietal reconstructions of OH 7.

To obtain permission to re-use content from this article visit RightsLink.

About this article

Publication history

Received

Accepted

Published

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1038/nature14224

Comments

By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.