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Almost all disciplines place special emphasis on the category of "first." The time scale evoked by this can vary dramatically, from the earliest traces of life on earth to a first edition novel.
Homo Sapiens Sapiens is the biological classification of modern man: the three names designate, in order, the genus, the family and the species. These skulls represent the earliest examples of hominids, Australopithecus Afarensis ("Lucy"), the genus "Homo," and the earliest example of archaic modern man. However, new fossils of early man are being discovered regularly, and scholarly opinion has changed dramatically in the last few decades as to what is the correct relationship among the many different specimens which make up the record of human evolution. What is "earliest" today may just be another signpost along that evolutionary road tomorrow--still important, but no longer the first.
