Largely unnoticed by the scientific community, a sensational discovery was published in the web in 2009, an unknown human skull from Olduvai. The paper is authored under the name "Robert von Zieten", but this is just selective use of first and last names by a well-known, but disreputable individual.There is more than one reason, why this paper would never have made it through any regular review process.
Here is the story, the author tries to tell us. He was involved in fieldwork in Olduvai in 1968. Together with at least one more colleague he claims having discovered the skull. Apparently, he took the skull away and transported it outside Tanzania.For the following 40 years the skull was hidden somewhere. He carried out new analyses in 2005 and 2006 and decided finally to publish the discovery.
The claims made in the paper leave a lot of loose ends and open questions. Here is just a selection:
1. Is the specimen fossil and does it really come from Olduvai?
2. Who is the colleague who is cited as a witness for the discovery?
3. How was it possible to smuggle the discovery outside Tanzania and into a foreign country - apparently without permission to do so?
4. Where is the specimen now?
This is an important discovery! It should be made available for inspection by a team of independent palaeoanthropologists.
