A REPLICA OF THE SKULL OF THE OLDEST HUMAN SPECIES, HOMO HABILIS

a museum-quality hand-painted resin replica of the famous Homo habilis skull, know by its museum code "KNM-ER 1813".

17cm x 11.5 cm.

Few skulls of this important species have been found and this is a replica of one of the best preserved. H. habilis is the most ancient member of the human genus Homo, and lived in East Africa from around 2.58 million to 1.4 million years ago. It or a closely related species is thought by many scientists to be an ancestor of modern humans and the extinct Asian 'Hobbits' (Homo floresiensis and luzonensis). The 1.9 million year old original skull was excavated in 1973 at Koobi Fora, Kenya, and described by Richard Leakey in the prestigious journal Nature. Homo habilis (which means "handy man") is believed to have made primitive (Oldowan) stone tools, which it used to butcher animal carcasses 'stolen' from relatively small predators such as jackals or cheetahs.