2026/04/21 by Abel Marinus Bosman, Laura T. Buck, Hugo Reyes‐Centeno +5 · 1 voice
Social Sciences · Psychology · Earth and Planetary Sciences · #Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology #Primate Behavior and Ecology #Evolution and Paleontology Studies
paper · doi:10.1111/1467-9655.70137
Our current understanding of the origins of Homo sapiens is limited, in part, by the fragmented fossil record from Late Pleistocene and early Holocene Africa. Here, we re‐examine the Kabua 1 cranium, an enigmatic and little‐studied Kenyan fossil discovered in the 1950s. We compare virtual reconstructions created previously by our team with a wide range of Middle Pleistocene to Early Holocene fossils and recent African H. sapiens crania to assess Kabua 1's morphological affinities. We also provide a conservative new Uranium‐series minimum date of 64.4 ± 5.4 ka. Our results highlight Kabua 1's broad similarity to derived H. sapiens , both recent and fossil. Its morphology nevertheless demonstrates some more basal affinities and thus contributes to our understanding of the depth of phenotypic diversity in Late Pleistocene African H. sapiens .