The morphological affinities of the fossil cranium from Kabua, Kenya
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 .
Authors
- Rainer Grün (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1366-3674)
- Marta Mìrazón Lahr (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5752-5770)
- Laura T. Buck (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1768-9049)
- Chris B. Stringer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9183-7337)
- Abel Marinus Bosman (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7962-7671)
- Hugo Reyes‐Centeno (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0179-3941)
- Katerina Harvati
- Qingfeng Shao
Institutions
- Uppsala University (SE)
- Natural History Museum (GB)
- Nanjing Normal University (CN)
- University of Cambridge (GB)
- Liverpool John Moores University (GB)
- University of Tübingen (DE)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute
- Published
- 2026-04-21
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9655.70137
- Primary Topic
- Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- National Science Foundation
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
- Vetenskapsrådet
- Carl Friedrich von Siemens Stiftung
- Leibniz-Gemeinschaft