Pliocene hominid fossils from Gamedah, Middle Awash, Ethiopia

Abstract

Fossil hominids from Gamedah, a Pliocene locality in the Middle Awash study area of the Ethiopian Afar depression, are described and compared with other fossil hominids. The specimens are a mandible and a parietal fragment dating to approximately 2.5 million years ago. The mandible is not a robust Australopithecus and is from an individual smaller than the nearly contemporary holotype of Australopithecus garhi. There is, as yet, no evidence of ‘robust’ Australopithecus north of the Konso site in Ethiopia. Whether this is a real biogeographical phenomenon or an artefact of sampling is presently impossible to determine.