Homo gautengensis

Homo gautengensis is a species name proposed in 2010 by the anthropologist Darren Curnoe for South African hominin fossils that had otherwise been attributed to Homo habilis, Homo ergaster or, in some cases, Australopithecus or Paranthropus. The holotype is the skull Stw 53, found in 1976 near Krugersdorp, and the species name refers to the South African province of Gauteng, where the fossils assigned to it were found. Those fossils cover a long span, from about 1.8 million years ago to perhaps 0.8 million years ago, which would make it one of the earliest and one of the longest lived species of Homo if it is valid. Recognition of the species has been limited, the classification of most of the fossils has been controversial from the start, and some palaeoanthropologists see little reason to treat it as a valid taxon.