Classification of hominids

It is not a very simple task to name a fossil. There will lot of opposition from others about the naming and validity of a fossil. Fortunately, there are formal rules for naming of species. This is a simplified version of the rules:

1) Whenever a fossil is found, it has to be compared with the type specimen of other species.

A type specimen is a fossil or a skull that possesses characteristics of that species

Other fossils of the same species must be similar to the type specimen. But if the fossil does not match with any type specimen, it is classified under a new species and it is made the type specimen of that species.

2) Suppose due to some errors, if the type specimens of two different species are later found to be the same, the first type specimen which was named takes the priority and the fossils under both species are clubbed under one. Suppose there are two species A and B, and the type specimen of A was created first. But however the two type specimens were found to be the same. The type specimen of thecombined species will be the type specimen of A and all fossils of species A and B will be put under one species A.

3) In case, it is found that a certain group is found to be having fossils of two different species, the ones that actually belong to this group will remain with the same species name and type specimen, but the wrongly classified specimens will be put under a different group with a different type specimen

4) Mostly when a new fossil is found, the finder gives the species its name. But there are many discrepancies about this name and it is given a new name - the name by which it is known today.

5) There is actually no organization that looks after the naming of skulls, scientists debate over the name given, and if a majority supports it, the name stays on.

All hominid fossils have to have the following details along with its name:

1) Specimen number or the name of the archaeological site.

2) A nickname in quotes

3) The species name

The locations are abbreviated. The table shows the different abbreviations:

For example:

KP 271,"Kanapoi Hominid", Australopithecus anamensis

This will be the basic format followed whenever a name of a specific skull is mentioned in this site though a description is always given.