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That brow definitely looks ape-like to me. And the brain is so small.

Of *course* it does. Transitional fossils will have features that are similar to *all* their offshoots, which is one of the ways we can positively identify it as a common ancestor to several lineages.

The common ancestor between all apes and man will have some "apish" features, and some humanoid features. This one's a pretty decent candidate. You've pointed out some of the "apish" features, now here's a post I wrote on annother thread to make clear the humanoid features (and how well filled in the "from there to here" line has become):

Now, WHICH one was this skull related to again???

Both, just as the article says.

I can tell just by looking at the photo that the skull has striking features in common with *both* the human *and* the chimp skull. But then, that's exactly what one would *expect* to see in a "missing link".

You're obviously only looking at the *differences*. People tend to see differences more readily than they see similarities. It's like the time I was watching a film with a Chinese friend of mine (I'm American, of European ancestry). There was a scene making a point of the fact that one of the characters was half Chinese and half American. I remarked that the guy looked mostly Chinese to me. My friend replied that to her he looked mostly American.

We tend to notice most what's different from ourselves, and mentally give less credit to what we're already used to seeing.

Here, try this sequence, presented in chronological order:

Newly found skull (7 million years old):

Australopithecus africanus (3.3 million years old):

Australopithecus afarensis (3 million years old):

Homo Ergaster (1.9 million years old):

Homo Erectus, (1.7 million years old):

Cro Magnon Man, (30,000 years old):

Australian Aborigne (found in 1905, age of specimen not given):

Modern Man (present day):

Note that, just as evolution predicts, it's a steady progression from first to last:

1. The brain case steadily grows and takes up more and more of the skull.

2. The eyebrow ridge shrinks and fades into the skull.

3. The slope of the face starts with a heavy slant and them becomes more vertical.

4. The jaw (when available) starts massive (especially at the hinge) and becomes more gracile. Even the two earliest specimens with no jaws obviously leave a *lot* of room open for jaw attachment.

5. The curve of the chin begins very rounded and "undercut", then gradually pulls forward until it's finally sharp and directly below the teeth.

6. The ridge of bone that connects the bottom of the eye sockets (even with the nose) to the sides of the skull (there's a name for it, I forget it right now) begins massive and protruding, with a pronounced depression above it, then gradually shrinks and fades into the skull until it has almost vanished (but is still present) in modern man.

7. The nasal cavity starts out almost round and gradually become triangular.

8. The earlier specimens have 5 molars behind the canine, the latter ones have 4 (the fifth has become an impacted wisdom tooth).

9. There's a noticeable "peak" on the top of the skulls that gradually fades into a rounded crown.

And so on.

Looking at three from the side, each shown true relative size to each other (oldest on left), we have:

I could do a similar transition from the 7 million year old skull to the chimp skull as well (except that it would take longer, there aren't as many non-hominid primate skull photos on the web, because people are more fascinated with hominids), which would show a similar progression over time, indicating that the 7 million year old skull is probably an ancestor, or near ancestor, to the chimp family as well. (Chimp DNA differs from human DNA by only 2%, we're 98% identical and are pretty close relatives, I'm sorry to have to inform you).

The 7 million year old skull has some similarities to the chimp skull (just as it has some similarities to human skulls), but there are big differences there as well, showing plainly that the 7MA skull is hardly just an ancient chimp.

Meanwhile, consider the far greater differences between the following skulls and the 7MA skull than between *either* the human or chimp skulls versus the 7MA skull:

Lowland Gorilla (note the "crest" on top of the skull, not present on the 7MA skull, and the very thick bony "ring" around the skull):

Orangutan (do I really need to point out the unique features?):

Baboon (ditto):

Howler monkey:

Mandrill baboon:

Gibbon:

The 7MA skull is clearly not just a random "ape" skull, it's obviously far closer to a humanoid skull than to the above apes.