Homo heidelbergensis

Homo heidelbergensis Fossil range: Pleistocene
Reconstruction of a H. heidelbergensis
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Mammalia Order: Primates Family: Hominidae Genus: Homo Species: H. heidelbergensis
Binomial name
†Homo heidelbergensis Schoetensack, 1908

Homo heidelbergensis ("Heidelberg Man") is an extinct species of the genus Homo. It is perhaps the direct ancestor of Homo neanderthalensis in Europe. Today, some scientists beileve that the Neanderthal is not directly related to the modern man (H. sapiens sapiens). More likely they are related to hominins called Homo sapiens idaltu that migrated from Africa to Europe again. The European forms of Homo heidelbergensis are therefore not thought to be direct ancestors of modern Homo sapiens. Homo antecessor is likely a direct ancestor living 750,000 years ago. It might have evolved into Homo heidelbergensis. It appeared in the fossil record living roughly 600,000 to 250,000 years ago in various areas of Europe.

Homo heidelbergensis remains were found in Mauer near Heidelberg, Germany and then later in Arago, France and Petralona, Greece. The best evidence found for these hominins date between 400,000 and 500,000 years ago.

H. heidelbergensis stone tool technology was considerably close to that of the Acheulean tools used by Homo erectus. The first fossil discovery of this species was made on October 21, 1907 and came from Mauer where the workman Daniel Hartmann spotted a jaw in a sandpit. The jaw was in good condition except for the missing premolar teeth, which were eventually found near the jaw. The workman gave it to professor Otto Schoetensack from the University of Heidelberg, who identified and named the fossil.

Most current experts believe that Rhodesian Man, found in Africa, belongs to the group Homo heidelbergensis.

Interpretations

Both Homo antecessor and Homo heidelbergensis proably evolved from Homo ergaster from Africa. Homo heidelbergensis had a much larger brain (1.100 cm³ to 1.400 cm³; modern Humans have about 1.350 cm³) and more advanced tools. It was therefore given its own species. It was also very tall (1.80 m on average). It was more muscular than the modern human.

They were good hunters

Cut marks on wild deer, elephants, rhinos and horses demonstrate that they were butchered. Some of the animals weighed as much as 700 kg (1,500 lb) or more. During this era, now-extinct wild animals such as mammoths, European lions and Irish elk lived on the European continent.

They may have buried their dead

Recent findings in Atapuerca suggest that H. heidelbergensis may have been the first species of the Homo genus to bury their dead. This is however still discussed among scientists. Some experts believe that H. heidelbergensis, like its descendant H. neanderthalensis learened a primitive form of language. No forms of art or sophisticated artifacts other than stone tools have been uncovered, although red ochre, a mineral that can be used to create a red pigment which is useful as a paint, has been found at Terra Amata excavations in the south of France.

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  Homo heidelbergensis cranium.

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  Copy of the jawbone found in 1907