palate and a small temporomandibular joint that could only fit a small, short lower jaw and not the typically massive mandible of a robust australopithecine. Homo gautengensis? In 2010, another argument was made by Darren Curnoe suggesting that SK 847 along with many other fossil specimens, including some from Homo habilis, Homo ergaster, and Australopithecus species, obtained from South Africa gives evidence to a whole new hominin species called Homo gautengensis, which he believes is the earliest species of the genus Homo. Evidence suggesting that SK 847 is an australopithecine Paleoanthropologists who rejected the classification of SK 847 as Homo referred to the single species hypothesis, which states that because of competitive exclusion, two species of hominids could not occupy the same niche. Therefore, all hominids from Swartkrans were of the same species and SK 847 is simply a small robust australopithecine. However, the single species hypothesis is no longer valid or accepted as true by anthropologists. Also, at the time of discovery, Swartkrans was known as a place with bulk of australopithecine fossils and this individual would be the only evidence of Homo found in Swartkrans. See also List of human evolution fossils References External links Taxonomic affinity of the early Homo cranium from Swartkrans, South Africa. Homo habilis fossils Archaeology of South Africa Archaeological sites of Southern Africa Archaeology of Southern Africa Archaeological history of Southern Africa