I HEART CHAOS

We already know of dozens of early hominid species that lived before or alongside our own, Homo sapien, but since they’re all hominids, the differences between species are very subtle and the relationships can sometimes be difficult to tease out. But now it looks like that Homo heidelbergensis, a species once considered a cousin of Homo sapien may be the “parent” species of us and Neanderthals.

Researchers at France’s National Center of Scientific Research (CNRS) focused on a particular fossil, a 400,000 year old partial cranium discovered in Ceprano, Italy. Because it initially appeared to be a new hominid species, it was given a scientific name after the town, Homo cepranensis. But this study, which compared the fossil with the skulls of 68 modern humans as well as 42 other fossils that ranged from 1.8 million to just 12,00 years old, found that the Ceprano skull was actually an archaic member of Homo heidelbergensis.

What this study really illuminated was the remarkable geographic range of Homo heidelbergensis, with the Ceprano skull sharing crucial similarities with fossils found throughout Africa and Eurasia over a time period spanning from 781,000 to 126,000 years ago. The idea is that, aided by the favorable climates of the Middle Pleistocene starting around 780,000 years ago, Homo heidelbergensis spread far and wide throughout the Old World.

Around 400,000 years ago, this mobility began to decrease and Homo heidelbergensis became more isolated, paving the way for the clear emergence of Neanderthals and modern humans in Eurasia and Africa respectively. Although Homo heidelbergensis has generally been seen as a precursor to Neanderthals, its precise relation to us has been less clear. This fossil analysis is some of the most compelling evidence yet that we can in fact trace an evolutionary lineage back through Homo heidelbergensis.

Via