Homo antecessor
Quick Summary
Homo antecessor is an extinct hominin species discovered in the Atapuerca caves in Spain. Fossils found at the Gran Dolina site date back approximately 800,000 years and include some of the earliest tools found in western Europe.1
The researchers who first described these fossils proposed H. antecessor as a potential ancestor to modern humans (H. sapiens) due to certain distinctively modern facial features. However, other scientists group these fossils with those classified as H. heidelbergensis.1
The Atapuerca site also yielded over 1,600 human fossils from the Sima de los Huesos cave, dating between 300,000 and 600,000 years old. These fossils show brain sizes within the range of both Neanderthals and modern
- Homo sapiens - Bodily structure
- Atapuerca
- Australopithecus - Transition to Homo
- Homo erectus - The question of ancestry
- Australopithecus - Quality of the fossil record
- Homo erectus - Dating the fossils
- human evolution - Background and beginnings in the Miocene
- Homo erectus - African fossils
- human evolution - Reduction in tooth size
- Homo sapiens - The genus Homo
- Neanderthal - Craniofacial features
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Homo sapiensThe genus Homo…the next earliest European hominin, H. antecessor, is known only from considerably later, about 800 kya. Africa appears to have been the source of not just one but successive waves of hominin emigrants, including H. heidelbergensis, which had originated by 600 kya and found its way to Europe by 500…
Read More…the next earliest European hominin, H. antecessor, is known only from considerably later, about 800 kya. Africa appears to have been the source of not just one but successive waves of hominin emigrants, including H. heidelbergensis, which had originated by 600 kya and found its way to Europe by 500…
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human evolutionThe emergence of Homo sapienserectus, or H. antecessor, and any or none of them could have been ancestors of H. neanderthalensis and H. sapiens. Neanderthal populations, particularly as represented by specimens from western Europe, probably were not ancestral to modern humans.
Read Moreerectus, or H. antecessor, and any or none of them could have been ancestors of H. neanderthalensis and H. sapiens. Neanderthal populations, particularly as represented by specimens from western Europe, probably were not ancestral to modern humans.
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