Early Homo at Swartkrans, South Africa: A review of the evidence and an evaluation of recently proposed morphs

The site of Swartkrans provided the first evidence for the contemporaneity of two early hominin genera, Paranthropus and Homo. In large measure, the fossils that are attributable to Homo consist of incomplete fragments and isolated teeth, which has led to an understandable degree of controversy regarding their taxonomic affinities. While all authorities seem to be in agreement that the Swartkrans australopith fossils constitute a single species, P. robustus, the number, identity and affinities of the species of Homo represented in these deposits remain unresolved issues. It has been proposed most recently that several distinct 'morphs' of this genus are represented at this site. However, a number of the specimens comprising these proposed morphological groups have been misidentified either taxonomically or anatomically. As such, the validity of these proposed associations and the morphological distinctions that might have characterized them are compromised. The proposition that more than one 'morph', or species, of Homo is represented at Swartkrans is neither novel nor unreasonable, but the evidence that has been cited most recently does not lend support to such a conclusion.