Hominid fossil from <span title="Steinheim...heidelbergensis,">Steinheim...heidelbergens...</span> neanderthal, or early modern human?

Question

I am debating whether the hominid skull from Steinheim is Homo heidelbergensis, Homo neanderthalensis, ,or early anatomically modern human. Does anybody know the answer, along with a site/article/reference for more information?

Answer 1

The answer is Homo heidelbergensis, officially.  The fossil was found in Germany.  However, the specimen does have some characteristics in common with the specimens of Homo erectus found in Asia, which lends questionability to its inclusion in Homo heidelbergensis.

Answer 2

Supposedly a common ancestor of humans and neanderthal and I would guess it was Heidelbergensis.  Since it is so subjective where you draw the line, I guess it could be either since it has features of both.  Obviously you have to pick a time when a Heidelbergensis mother gives birth to a human baby but still mother and child will be indistinguishable.  It slowly evolved into a human.  This site has a picture:

http://images.search.yahoo.com/search/im...

This is a useful article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steinheim_S...

Answer 3

Currently it appears that the oldest Neanderthal fossils are out of the area that now comprising Belgium and France. Research is ongoing, so things are subject to change.

The Engis child from Belgium was the first Neanderthal discovered, in 1829, and the second discovered was the Forbes Quarry find from Gibralter in 1848. The species name of neanderthalensis comes from William King, who first named the species in 1863 at a meeting of the British Association, and put it into print in the Quarterly Journal of Science in 1864. This species is the focus of more argument among the academia of paleoanthropology than any other. Today, most researchers follow a multiregional view which has the European Neanderthals interbreeding and being absorbed by invading populations, or to have been marginalized by invading Homo sapiens until they died out, leaving no genetic legacy to modern humans. There are some (C.L. Brace most prominently) that think that the Neanderthals evolved in place into modern Europeans with little or no genetic influx from African populations, but few accept this argument.

Lower Paleolithic Neanderthals

As always in the anagenesis of one species into another, there is a &quot;fuzzy&quot; area which prevents the pinning down a a date when &quot;A&quot; became &quot;B&quot;. In the case of heidelbergensis to neanderthalensis, this boundary seems to have the Neanderthals first appearing between 250 kyr to 200 kyr. The specimens that can be attributed as some of the earlier Neanderthals include material from Pontnewydd Cave, Vértesszöllos, Ehringsdorf, Casal de&#039;Pazzi, Biache, La Chaise, Montmaurin, Prince, Lazaret, Fontéchevade, and possibly the very latest material from Atapuerca.

The material from Pontnewydd Cave, Wales, consists of small bits of a mandible and maxilla that may represent an eight-year-old child and an isolated molar from a near-adult or adult individual. This material has been dated by U-series dating, thermoluminescence (TL) dating, and by the associated faunal remains to approximately 251 kyr to 195 kyr. However, these dates are quite likely too old, as the material may have been washed into the cave at a later time. The features of the fragmentary remains that links them to Neanderthals include the dominant buccal cusp of the P3 and the taurodontism of the postcanine teeth.

The site of Vértesszöllos, Hungary, is also not very securely dated. The site was originally dated by thorium/uranium dating and association with microfauna to the 400 kyr range, but U-series dating has suggested a much younger date of 225 kyr to 185 kyr. However, the stratigraphy of the sites makes the dating of any of these methods with accuracy to the date of the skeletal material as unlikely, so the real date may be earlier or later. The remains of two individuals come from the site, a child approximately seven-years-old that is represented by fragments of a deciduous canine, a molar, and a permanent molar, and an adult that is represented by most of an occipital bone. The teeth are very similar to the Zhoukoudian material from China, and the cranial fragment has a Neanderthal-like occipital bun, but the bun is attained by cranial thickening, which is unlike the later Neanderthals. The cranial fragments gives an estimated cranial capacity of 1300 cc. The material has been attributed to erectus, heidelbergensis, and neanderthalensis by different researchers.

The material from Ehrinsdorf comes from the Fischer and Kämpfe quarries that are near the city. The material has been dated to 205 kyr by U-series dating and to 200 kyr by ESR dating, giving a fairly secure date for the material. The hominid remains consists of a neurocranium and partial endocast, an adult and an adolescent mandible, four parietal bones, a femoral shaft, as well as some associated teeth and postcrania. The Ehringsdorf H vault has been reconstructed at least three times since the material was discovered in 1925, by F. Weidenreich, O. Kleinschmidt, and E. Vlcek. The most Neanderthal-like reconstruction was done by Kleinschmidt, and the least Neanderthal-like was done by Weidenreich. However, no matter which reconstruction is used, the material shows many traits linking it to later Neanderthals, not least of which is the large brain size (1450 cc for a female). Ehringsdorf is likely the earliest unquestionable Neanderthal site.

The material from Biache-Saint-Vaast, France, consists of two partial crania, a maxilla and cranial rear of a female individual, and parts of the splanchnocranium and cranial vault of a male. The site is dated to an estimated 196 kyr to 159 kyr. A brain size of 1200 cc. has been estimated for the female crania. While some features such as the small brain size seem to link these specimens to the Swanscombe cranium, it shows many more affinities with later Neanderthals, including:

Neanderthal 1 was discovered in the Feldhofer grotto, in the Neander Valley, Germany. Therfore the name Neanderthal man. However The cave site of Shanidar is located at the foothills of the Zagros Mountains in north-eastern Iraq. It was excavated between 1957-1961 by Ralph Solecki and his team from Columbia University and yielded the first adult Neanderthal skeletons in Iraq, dating between 60-80,000 years Before Present.

Here is a list of some of the current finds:

Amud Cranium

~Found at Amud, Israel in 1961 by a Japanese excavation team

Amud 7 Infant

~Found at Amud, Israel in 1961 by a Japanese excavation team

Dederiyeh Partial Skeleton

~By Takashi Oguchi, from Dederiyeh, Syria, and contains the remains of a 2-year old child

Kebara 1 Infant

~Found at Kebara Cave, Israel

Kebara 2 Partial Skeleton

~Found in 1982 at Kebara Cave, Israel

~Dated to 60,000 years

Qafzeh 6 Cranium

~From Qafzeh, Israel

Shanidar 1 Skeleton

~Discovered by Ralph Solecki at Shanidar Cave in Northern Iraq

Shanidar 2 Crushed Skull

~By Ralph Solecki at Shanidar Cave, Iraq

Shanidar 3 &quot;Wounded&quot; Skeleton

~By Ralph Solecki at Shanidar Cave, Iraq

Shanidar 4 Skeleton

~&quot;The Flower Burial&quot; by Ralph Solecki

(Shanidar 4 are the bones in the center of the picture. The bones of Shanidar 6 can be seen at the top center of the picture.)

Shanidar 5 Skeleton

~By Ralph Solecki at Shanidar Cave, Iraq

Shanidar 6 Skeleton

~By Ralph Solecki at Shanidar Cave, Iraq

Shanidar 8 &quot;Baby&quot;

~By Ralph Solecki at Shanidar Cave, Iraq

Skuhl 5 Cranium

~From Skuhl, Israel

~This appears to be a transitional specimen. Robust features place it borderline between Neanderthals and Archaic Homo Sapiens

Tabun C1 Partial Skeleton

~From Tabun, Israel

~Different dating techniques have produced far different results for the dating to the Tabun level &quot;C&quot; series. Bones from this specimen have been dated to between 33,000 and 34,000 years old. It is held that none of the specimens from the Tabun &quot;C&quot; series are older than 70,000 years

Tabun C2 Mandible

~From Tabun, Israel

~This mandible has been recognized as having more modern traits, and could be place with archaic Homo sapiens as well

Tabun C4 Fragment of Right Radius

~From Tabun, Israel

Tabun C5 Wrist

~From Tabun, Israel

Teshik-Tash Partial Skeleton

~From Teshik-Tash, Uzbekistan

~Dated to 70,000 years

From Europe:

Engis Child

~The first Neanderthal discovered. Found in Belgium in 1929

Forbes Quarry Skull

~The second Neanderthal specimen found. Discovered at Gibralter in 1848

Krapina 3 Partial Cranium

~Found between 1899 - 1905 by Dragutin Gorjanorvic - Kramberger at Krapina, Croatia

~Dated to 130,000 years

La Chapelle-aux-Saints Partial Skeleton

~From La Chapelle-aux-Saints, France

~This specimen is diagnosed with having chronic arthritis throughout its body

La Ferrassie 1 Skull

~Found in 1909 at La Ferrassie, France

~Dated to 50,000 years

Le Moustier Skull

~From Le Moustier, France

Mount Circeo Skull

~From Mount Circeo, Italy

Neanderthal 1 Cranium

~Discovered in 1856 in the Neander Valley, Germany

~Neanderthal 1 is the type specimen for Homo neanderthalensis

Saccopastore 1 Female Cranium

~From Saccopastore, Italy

~Dated to 120,000 years

Saccopastore 2 Partial Male Cranium

~From Saccopastore, Italy

~Dated to 120,000 years

St-Cesaire Cranium

~From St Cesaire, Western France

Vindija G3 Humerus Fragment

~From level G3 at Vindija, Croatia

Zaffaraya Mandible

~Found by Zafarraya Cave, near Andalucia, Spain

~Dated to 27,000 years

From Northwest Africa:

Jebel Irhoud 1 Cranium

~Found at the Moroccan site of Jebel Irhoud

Answer 4

My father unearthed a skull in our backyard garden a few years ago. Scientists at the local university thought it was Homo Neanderthalensis due to the protruding brow ridge and small cranial cavity. But a few days later dental X-Rays identified it as my Uncle Ray who disappeared at my 4th birthday party when we were playing kickball. He ran off into the woods to retreive a foul ball and never did return.