REP. GEORGIA
2003
Homo erectus georgicus, 2001 David Lordkipanidze
FDC 25-04-2003
'First European', 1.700.000 years old.
Two 60 T. stamps, cartoon-like reconstruction and skull of Homo erectus,
found in Georgia.
Migration routes of early hominids in sheet margin.
Stanley Gibbons: 404.
Discovered in 2001 at Dmanisi in Georgia, the skull's estimated age is 1.8 million years. Specimen D2700 consisted of a mostly complete skull in exceptionally good condition, including a lower jaw (D2735) found about a metre away and thought to belong to the same individual.
At around 600cc (cubic capacity), this was the smallest and most primitive hominid skull ever discovered outside of Africa until Homo floresiensis recent discovery.
Homo georgicus is a species of hominin that was suggested in 2002 to describe fossil skulls and jaws found in Dmanisi, Georgia in 1999 and 2001, which seem intermediate between Homo habilis and H. erectus. A partial skeleton was discovered in 2001. The fossils are about 1.8 million years old. The remains were first discovered in 1991 by Georgian scientist, David Lordkipanidze, accompanied by an international team which unearthed the hominin remains. Implements and animal bones were found alongside the ancient hominin remains.
At first, scientists thought they had found thirty or so skulls belonging to Homo ergaster, but size differences led them to consider erecting a new species, Homo georgicus, which would be the descendant of Homo habilis and ancestor of Asian Homo erectus.
Homo floresiensis
Was a one-metre- (3ft) tall species which lived on Flores Island (near Java) from between 95,000 to at least 12,000 years ago. It had long arms and a skull the size of a large grapefruit and shared it's habitat with a golden retriever-sized rat, giant tortoises and huge lizards - including Komodo dragons - and a pony-sized dwarf elephant called Stegodon which floresiensis probably hunted.
