Pre-Human Skull Found in NYC Shop
07:06 AM ET 09/07/99
NEW YORK (AP) - A fossil skull, presumably of a Homo erectus believed up to 1
million years old, has been found in a Manhattan shop, The New York Times reported today.
Paleoanthropologists have concluded that the skull is a genuine specimen from
Indonesia that could be critical in determining the place on the human family tree of the
East Asia branch of Homo erectus.
Such information could be central to the understanding of where and how modern
humans, Homo sapiens, evolved, the newspaper said. The skull was delivered in March to the
Columbus Avenue shop Maxilla and Mandible Ltd., whose window display boasts bleached
bones, mounted insects and animal sculptures, among other natural-history curiosities.
The shop's owner, Henry Galiano, said the fossil was dropped off by a mysterious
man who claimed to represent the estate of a collector. Galiano, in cleaning the skull,
realized it could be ancient and valuable.
The dark gray skull, anywhere from 100,000 to 1 million years old, probably
belonged to a male in his 20s, scientists said. The individual's brain was about half the
size of that of Homo sapiens but within the range for Homo erectus. He had a humanlike
high forehead.
Casts of the inside of the skull indicate differential development of the two
sides of the brain and swelling in a region of the brain known as the Broca cap, which
suggest the Homo erectus was developing the potential for language and speech, scientists
said.
``It's a very interesting specimen because it's not like any other Homo erectus
we know from Indonesia or anywhere else,'' said Dr. Eric Delson, a City University of New
York paleoanthropologist. Scientists from Indonesia and the United States who studied the
skull - an almost complete cranium but missing the upper and lower jaws - are preparing to
publish their findings.
The shop's owner has presented the skull, which was traced to the Poloyo village
on the Solo River in Central Java, to an Indonesian paleoanthropologist for its return
home. Experts estimate it might have commanded $500,000 on the open market.
