Commonly called "Flat Face Man", Kenyanthropus platyops is a contemporary of Australopithecus that also lived in East Africa.
Fossil remains have been found at Lomekwi, Kenya, and include a relatively complete, but crushed, cranium that exhibits a relatively small cranial capacity at 450 cc, a small external autatory meatus (similar to Australopithecus anamensis), a flattened face, and a few preserved teeth that include small molars. Muscle insertion points on the cranium, along with the flattened face, suggests K. platyops has a strong masticatory apparatus.
This specimen was placed into a new genus based largely on the reduced subnasal progranthism. However, due to the extremely fragmented condition of the cranium, anthropologists continue to debate K. platyops taxonomic classification, and its ancestral relationship with other hominins.
The type specimen for K. platyops is KNM-WT-40000, which was found at Lomekwi and dates between 3.5 and 3.3 million years ago.
