Peninj 1 was found in 1964 at a site in Tanzania called Peninj, west of Lake Natron and about 80 km (50 miles) from Olduvai Gorge, a major paleoanthropological site. On the 11th of January, fossil hunter Kamoya Kimeu was crossing the western side of Lake Natron as part of a team led by Richard Leakey when he discovered the mandible buried in ancient volcanic ash
in situ. Later that year,
Louis Leakey, his wife
Mary Leakey and their son Richard, announced the discovery of the Peninj Mandible in an article published in
Nature. Together with the
OH 5 cranium, the nearly complete mandible of Peninj 1 showed that this East African species was even more robust than other
hominin specimens found in southern Africa. ==See also==