Fossil clavicle of a Middle Pleistocene hominid from the Central Narmada Valley, India

The discovery of a Middle Pleistocene hominid clavicle is reported here. This discovery is particularly important because clavicles are hitherto unrepresented in the fossil record of Asia. The Narmada clavicle comes from the Boulder Conglomerate horizon at Hathnora near Hoshangabad in the Central Narmada Valley. This is the same deposit that previously yielded the Homo erectus/archaic Home sapiens partial cranium, which has recently been dated to between 0.2 and 0.7 ma (million years ago). The specimen has some unusual morphology and is a very short and robust bone: far shorter than even the early African Homo erectus clavicles. It is about the size that would be expected in an adult human pygmy. This discovery reopens the debate on the taxonomic position of the Narmada hominid in human ancestry. (C) 1997 Academic Press Limited.