mandible

Its body is predominantly metallic blue, except for the antennae, mandibles, and legs.

The county medical examiner’s office tried for years to find the owner of the errant piece of mandible, but their DNA databases turned up no matches.

“It’s a convincing case,” Ward says, “but it’s just one mandible until about 2 million years ago,” when at least two members of the genus, Homo habilis and H. erectus, appear elsewhere in eastern Africa.

Their hunting expeditions are dangerous because termite soldiers defend their conspecifics -- and use their powerful mandibles to do so.

Their data indicated that the Choerolophodontidae mandible was specialised for cutting horizontally or slanted-growing plants, which may explain the absence of mandibular tusks.