Howell, F(rancis) Clark (1925– )

US physical anthropologist who wrote extensively on African ecology and palaeoanthropology. His expedition to Ethiopia in 1969 revealed teeth and jaw fragments demonstrating that human australopithecoid ancestors existed four million years ago, rather than two million, as previously believed.

He was born in Kansas City, Missouri. He was a professor at the University of Chicago 1955–70 before becoming a professor at the University of California, Berkeley in 1970.