HADAR
LOCATION
Locality 666, Makaamitalu Basin, Hadar, Afar region,
Ethiopia.
ER 1805 and 1813. Kimbel et al. considered compari-
son of 666-1 to 1805 particularly significant, since
both specimens are relatively large and presumed to be
male; these researchers noted certain differences, espe-
cially in subnasal morphology and P2 breadth.
DISCOVERY
W. Kimbel and colleagues, 1994.
MORPHOLOGY
Palate, separated in midline, with lower nasal aper-
ture. Retains RP1-M1 and L12-M2. All teeth very
to extremely worn, many partially reconstructed on
L. side. Roots of RM2-3, alveoli for LI1-RC andMATERIAL
NME A.L. 666-1, broken maxilla with RP1-M1 and
LI2-M2.
LM3. Also some small dental fragments.
Palate fairly small. Curve at front smooth and
quite tight. Inferior part of nasal aperture preserved
and appears to have been relatively narrow. Inferior
margin peaked in midline by low, weak, upwardly fac-
ing anterior nasal spines. Spines form superior margin
of nasoalveolar clivus. Prenasal fossa may have beenDATING AND STRATIGRAPHIC CONTEXT
Upper Kada Hadar Member, Hadar Formation, less
than 1 m below a tephra, BKT-3, dated at 2.3 Ma
both by SCLF Ar/Ar (Kimbel et al., 1997) and
fission-track (Walter, 1989).
ARCHAEOLOGICAL CONTEXT
Oldowan flakes and bifacial “end-choppers’’ were
recovered nearby, from the same siltstone horizon
(Kimbel et al., 1997).
PREVIOUS DESCRIPTIONS AND ANALYSES
Original description was by Kimbel et al. (1997), who
assigned the specimen to genus Homo on the basis of
several characters. They compared A.L. 666-1 most
closely to Homo habilis, as distinguished from Homo
rudoyefensis, and as exemplified by the Olduvai speci-
mens OH 24 and 62 and the Turkana specimens
lateral to spines; fossa defined at front by low, thick,
laterally running “spinal crest,” and posteriorly by lat-
eral thickening of the posterior pole of nasoalveolar
clivus, which overhangs the almost horizontally ori-
ented, large, funnel-shaped common orifice of paired
incisive fossa. Inferior margin of nasal aperture has a
slight edge formed by the spinal crest. What is pre-
served of inferior part of lateral margin of nasal aper-
ture seems to flow smoothly from lateral wall of nasal
cavity onto flattened nasal pillar. Lateral to aperture,
facial surface (as preserved) is rather flat and some-
what laterally facing. From anterior nasal spines to
posterior pole, nasoalveolar clivus slopes sharply down88