Current Assessment of the Rex Gilroy
Hominid Skull Collection

A Pygmy Homo Race.

The Essington [Oberon] NSW mineralised [ironstone] partly mummified skull.

This small hominid skull, although lacking a rear brain case due to crushing through burial beneath a heavy overlying strata, displays surviving features of a remarkable 'modern' appearance, such as a vertical forehead and face.

There does not seem to have been projecting eyebrow ridges and there is a long 'modern' nose. Mummified skin covers most of the face, and a patch of skin has detached itself from the left side of the nose to cover the left eye socket, suggesting the hominid may have already been dead and decomposing at the time of its initial preservation.

The left side of the head has been crushed inwards flattening the cheekbone, although this is present on the right side of the specimen. The teeth of the upper jaw have been broken away and the lower jaw crushed, revealing adult teeth. Mud and small gravels have filled the skull's interior. Mineralised mud and gravels cover the rear of the skull.

The specimen was initially covered by a deposit of volcanic ash and mud during an eruption that was responsible for the rapid preservation of the tissue. As volcanic disturbances in the Oberon region ceased in late Pliocene times, this suggests the specimen to be around 3 million years old.

The skull/mummified head is 14cm in height by 9cm across the facial section by 8cm thick in its incomplete state. The hominid's height is estimated to have been about 84cm.

The 'modern' features of this specimen suggest a pygmy-size race of Homo that evolved around late Pliocene times, perhaps from an ancestral race leading to Homo erectus.

The fossil was unearthed by Mrs Joy Colley about 1995 and donated to the Rex Gilroy Natural Science collection.

Since then two further specimens, recovered by Rex Gilroy at sites in Qld suggest all three skull-types may be related.

Click here to go back to pygmy Section

Return to Main Skull Page Thumbnail Index Click Here

Return to Mysterious Australia Mainpage Click Here

Return to Main Yowie Mainpage Click Here