One of four species Louis Leakey saw KNM-ER 1470 only days
before his death, and, believing the skull to be a million years
older than it was, classified it as an “indeterminate species of
Homo.” When scientists later dated the skull to 1.9 million
years old, the same age to when Homo habilis lived, the
scientific community thought KNM-ER 1470 must then belong to
Homo habilis - but the mandible (jaw) and teeth just didn’t seem
to fit within acceptable limits of variation or differences for
H. habilis. Even if KNM-ER 1470 was considered a large H.
habilis male, the size difference would be too great compared to
KNM-ER 1813, an established H. habilis female, for the two to
both belong to the same species. Over several weeks following
its discovery, scientists Meave Leakey and Bernard Wood
reconstructed KNM-ER 1470’s skull from more than 150 fragments,
revealing a large cranium with a long, wide, flat face. While
tooth roots show that this early human had large teeth, the
skull lacked the massive jaw muscle feat