Fossil Hominids: Type Specimens

Under the formal rules for naming species, each species must have a type specimen. The 'type description' of a species describes the type specimen, and the similarities to and differences from closely related species. Another fossil belongs to the same species if and only if it belongs to the same species as the type specimen. Obviously this is a subjective assessment, but this rule ensures that all scientists are at least using the same criteria when trying to allocate specimens to species. When scientific thinking about the classification of specimens changes, there are complicated rules which determine how specimens should be allocated to species.

If two type specimens are later determined to belong to the same species, then the first one named takes priority. For example, when it was decided that the 2nd known australopithecine fossil, assigned to Plesianthropus transvaalensis, actually belonged to the same species as the first, that name became invalid and all Plesianthropus fossils were reassigned to Australopithecus africanus.

If it is decided that the fossils previously assigned to a species actually belong to two different species, then the type specimen and any other specimens belonging to the same species as it keep the old name. The other fossils will take the name of whichever specimen among them is first used as a type specimen for a new species definition. An example is Homo habilis (type specimen OH 7); the species Homo rudolfensis, with type specimen ER 1470, consists of fossils formerly assigned to habilis.

Java Man (Pithecanthropus erectus) and Peking Man (Sinanthropus pekinensis) were originally assigned not only to different species, but different genera from Homo sapiens. Scientists such as Boule who considered them in the same genus but not the same species would sink Sinanthropus as a genus and call Peking Man Pithecanthropus pekinensis. Most scientists soon decided they were in the same species, so the Peking Man specimens were reassigned to P. erectus because that name had priority over S. pekinensis. Later, when it was decided that P. erectus was in the same genus as Homo sapiens, the genus name Pithecanthropus was sunk and the specific name erectus was kept, so the species became Homo erectus.

There is no central authority which proclaims that, for example, Homo ergaster is henceforth a valid species. Instead, the fate of a species name depends on the extent to which scientists accept the claim of its namers that it a valid species distinguishable from all others. Many of the following species names are not used in these pages, either because they are rarely used, or are so new that there is as yet no consensus on their validity.

Where two species names are given, the first is the one which was given by the original namer of the fossil, and the second name is the one by which it is usually known now. This often occurs when the genus name originally assigned is rejected and the fossil is placed in another genus.

For anyone interested in the naming and classification of hominids, an indispensable reference is Naming our Ancestors (Meikle and Parker, 1994). This useful book contains an introduction to the terms and principles of taxonomy, reprints of 15 sources in which hominid species were first named, and reprints of four papers which have been very influential in hominid taxonomy.

Species	Type Specimen	Named By
Sahelanthropus tchadensis	TM 266-01-060-1	Brunet et al. 2002
Orrorin tugenensis	BAR 1000'00	Senut et al. 2001
Australopithecus ramidus Ardipithecus ramidus	ARA-VP 6/1	White et al. 1994
Australopithecus anamensis	KP 29281	M. Leakey et al. 1995
Australopithecus afarensis	LH 4	Johanson et al. 1978
Homo antiquus	AL 288-1	Ferguson 1984
Australopithecus bahrelghazali	KT 12/H1	Brunet et al. 1996
Kenyanthropus platyops	KNM-WT 40000	M. Leakey et al. 2001
Australopithecus africanus	Taung	Dart 1925
Australopithecus garhi	BOU-VP-12/130	Asfaw et al. 1999
Paraustralopithecus aethiopicus Australopithecus aethiopicus	Omo 18	Arambourg & Coppens 1968
Paranthropus robustus Australopithecus robustus	TM 1517	Broom 1938
Australopithecus walkeri	KNM-WT 17000	Ferguson 1989
Zinjanthropus boisei Australopithecus boisei	OH 5	L. Leakey 1959
Paranthropus crassidens Australopithecus crassidens	SK 6	Broom 1949
Homo antiquus praegens Australopithecus praegens	KNM-T1 13150	Ferguson 1989
Homo habilis	OH 7	L. Leakey et al. 1964
Homo louisleakeyi	OH 9	Kretzoi 1984
Pithecanthropus rudolfensis Homo rudolfensis	KNM-ER 1470	Alexeev 1986
Homo microcranous	KNM-ER 1813	Ferguson 1995
Homo georgicus	D2600	Gabunia et al. 2002
Homo ergaster	KNM-ER 992	Groves & Mazak 1975
Pithecanthropus erectus Homo erectus	Trinil 2	Dubois 1894
Homo antecessor	ATD6-5	Bermudez de Castro et al. 1997
Homo heidelbergensis	Mauer 1	Schoetensack 1908
Homo rhodesiensis	Kabwe	Woodward 1921
Homo helmei	Florisbad	Dreyer 1935
Homo neanderthalensis	Neandertal 1	King 1864
Homo sapiens	-	Linnaeus 1758

Meikle W.E. and Parker S.T. (1994): Naming our Ancestors: an anthology of hominid taxonomy. Prospect Heights, Illinois: Waveland Press.