Homo rhodesiensis
| Homo rhodesiensis Temporal range: Pleistocene | |
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| Skull found in 1921 | |
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| Species: | H. rhodesiensis |
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| †Homo rhodesiensis Woodward, 1921 | |
Homo rhodesiensis is a proposed hominin species in the genus Homo. Based on a skull found in 1921, scientists believed they had found a new species and named it Homo rhodesiensis. However, today, most experts believe it is within the group of Homo heidelbergensis.[1]
Other names, such as Archaic Homo sapiens arcaicus[2] and Homo sapiens rhodesiensis,[3] have also been suggested for Homo rhodesiensis.
Discovery
[change | change source]Paleoanthropologists found a single fossil skull in 1921, in the colony of Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) at a mine called Broken Hill (now Kabwe).[4] This skull is sometimes called "Rhodesian man," the "Broken Hill skull," or the "Kabwe skull."
The skull lacks the lower jaw, but otherwise is almost complete. In addition to the cranium, an upper jaw from another individual, a sacrum (bone of the pelvis), a tibia, and two femur fragments were also found.
Later fossil discoveries have been dated to between 600,000[5] years ago and 320,000[6] years ago.
Kabwe skull
[change | change source]Initially, in 1974, Bada et al. proposed that the Kabwe skull was 110,000 years old.[7][8] Since then, the skull has been dated to between 324,000 and 274,000 years old.[9] Unfortunately, the destruction of the paleoanthropological site has made layered dating impossible.
The skull had about 1,100 cm³ inside to hold the brain.[10] This is a much smaller cranial capacity than modern humans have. The brain size is rather small for such a late date.
The skull is from an extremely robust (strong) individual, and has the comparatively largest brow-ridges of any known hominid remains. It had a broad face similar to Homo neanderthalensis (i.e. a large nose and thick protruding brow ridges), and has been interpreted as an "African Neanderthal". There are also several features intermediate between modern Homo sapiens and Neanderthals.
References
[change | change source]- ↑ Ni, Xijun; Ji, Qiang; Wu, Wensheng; Shao, Qingfeng; Ji, Yannan; Zhang, Chi; Liang, Lei; Ge, Junyi; Guo, Zhen; Li, Jinhua; Li, Qiang; Grün, Rainer; Stringer, Chris (2021-08-28). "Massive cranium from Harbin in northeastern China establishes a new Middle Pleistocene human lineage". The Innovation. 2 (3) 100130. Bibcode:2021Innov...200130N. doi:10.1016/j.xinn.2021.100130. ISSN 2666-6758. PMC 8454562. PMID 34557770.
- ↑ Birx, H. James, ed. (2010). 21st century anthropology: a reference handbook. 21st century reference series. London: SAGE. ISBN 978-1-4522-6630-5.
- ↑ Bernard Wood (31 March 2011). Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Human Evolution, 2 Volume Set. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 761–762. ISBN 978-1-4443-4247-5.
- ↑ "Occurrence Detail 787018738". www.gbif.org. Retrieved 2025-12-15.
- ↑ "Human fossil record interface page". www.fossilized.org. Retrieved 2025-12-15.
- ↑ Reiner, Whitney B.; Masao, Fidelis; Sholts, Sabrina B.; Songita, Agustino Venance; Stanistreet, Ian; Stollhofen, Harald; Taylor, R.e.; Hlusko, Leslea J. (2017). "OH 83: A new early modern human fossil cranium from the Ndutu beds of Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania". American Journal of Physical Anthropology. 164 (3): 533–545. doi:10.1002/ajpa.23292. PMID 28786473.
- ↑ Bada, Jeffrey L. et al Concordance of collagen-based radiocarbon and aspartic-acid racemization ages Archived 2015-03-20 at the Wayback Machine PNAS abstract URL.
- ↑ Bada, Jeffrey L. (1985). "Amino acid racemization dating of fossil bones". Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences. 13: 241–268. doi:10.1146/annurev.ea.13.050185.001325. Archived from the original on 2021-02-12. Retrieved 2012-06-08.
- ↑ Grün, Rainer; Pike, Alistair; McDermott, Frank; Eggins, Stephen; Mortimer, Graham; Aubert, Maxime; Kinsley, Lesley; Joannes-Boyau, Renaud; Rumsey, Michael; Denys, Christiane; Brink, James; Clark, Tara; Stringer, Chris (2020-04-01). "Dating the skull from Broken Hill, Zambia, and its position in human evolution" (PDF). Nature. 580 (7803): 372–375. Bibcode:2020Natur.580..372G. doi:10.1038/s41586-020-2165-4. ISSN 1476-4687. PMID 32296179. S2CID 214736650.
- ↑ Rightmire, G. Philip. The evolution of Homo erectus: comparative anatomical studies of an extinct human species Cambridge University Press, 1993. ISBN 0-521-44998-7, ISBN 978-0-521-44998-4.