Science Saturday III: The Missing Link?

Scientists say they have found a skull that may be the missing link between Homo erectus and modern man.

The small hominid cranium -- found in two pieces and believed to be between 500,000 and 250,000 years old -- "comes from a very significant period and is very close to the appearance of the anatomically modern human," said Sileshi Semaw, director of the Gona Paleoanthropological Research Project in Ethiopia.

Archaeologists found the early human cranium in Ethiopia's northeastern Afar region. Several stone tools and fossilized animals including two types of pigs, zebras, elephants, antelopes, cats, and rodents also were found at the site.

Homo erectus, which many believe was an ancestor of modern Homo sapiens, is thought to have died out 100,000 to 200,000 years ago.

The cranium dates to a time about which little is known -- the transition from African Homo erectus to modern humans. The fossil record from Africa for this period is sparse and most of the specimens poorly dated.

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