ABSTRACT
The Shungura and Usno Formations in the Omo Valley, Ethiopia, have yielded abundant but fragmentary hominid remains. The majority of these specimens occupy the time range 3 to 2 Myr BP and provide us with important glimpses of a little-known phase of hominid evolution in eastern Africa. In light of recent geochronological and stratigraphic work in the Turkana basin (Brown and Feible, 1986), over 97% of the hominid remains from the Omo succession can be interpreted to predate the hominid sample from the Upper Burgi Member (= “ sub-KBS” levels) and higher stratigraphic levels at East Turkana. With the exception of the L 894-1 fragmentary cranium from upper Member G, all hominid specimens from Member G derive from levels below the lacustrine sequences. The chronological age of these specimens is greater than 2 Myr BP (Brown et al., 1985; Brown and Feibel, this volume, chapter 22).
