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The site of Dmanisi, Georgia, has yielded an impressive sample of hominid cranial and postcranial remains, documenting the presence of Homo outside Africa around 1.8 million years ago. Here we report on a new cranium from Dmanisi (D4500) that, together with its mandible (D2600), represents the world's first completely preserved adult hominid skull from the early Pleistocene. D4500/D2600 combines a small braincase (546 cubic centimeters) with a large prognathic face and exhibits close morphological affinities with the earliest known Homo fossils from Africa. The Dmanisi sample, which now comprises five crania, provides direct evidence for wide morphological variation within and among early Homo paleodemes. This implies the existence of a single evolving lineage of early Homo, with phylogeographic continuity across continents.

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The Hadar Formation in Ethiopia is a prolific source of Pliocene Hominidae attributed to the species Australopithecus afarensis. Since 1990, three seasons of field work have contributed 53 new specimens to the hominid inventory from Hadar, including the first fairly complete adult skull. Ranging from 3.0 to 3.4 million years in age (Fig. 1), the new specimens bear on key debates in hominid palaeontology, including the taxonomic implications of sample variation and the reconstruction of locomotor behaviour. They confirm the taxonomic unity of A. afarensis and constitute the largest body of evidence for about 0.9 million years of stasis in the earliest known hominid species.

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