The Natural History Museum's Professor Chris Stringer is seen holding the Broken Hill skull, Homo heidelbergensis, a fossil of an extinct human species found in Zambia in 1921 in this undated image provided to Reuters March 31, 2020. Kevin Webb/NHM Image Resources/The Trustees of the Natural History Museum in London/Handout via REUTERS.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Scientists have solved a longstanding mystery over the age of a landmark skull found in 1921 in Zambia - the first fossil of an extinct human species discovered in Africa - in research with big implications for deciphering the origin of our own species.
The study published on Wednesday involved the so-called Broken Hill skull, also called the Kabwe skull in recognition of a nearby town, discovered by a Swiss miner working in the Broken Hill lead and zinc mine in what was then Northern Rhodesia. Until now, scientists had been in the dark about how old it was, making it difficult to know its place on the human family tree.
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