Heidelberg Man

"Heidelberg Man", "Mauer Jaw", Homo sapiens (archaic) (also Homo heidelbergensis)

Discovered by gravel pit workers in 1907 near Heidelberg in Germany. Estimated age is between 400,000 and 700,000 years. This find consisted of a lower jaw with a receding chin and all its teeth. The jaw is extremely large and robust, like that of Homo erectus, but the teeth are at the small end of the erectus range. It is often classified as Homo heidelbergensis, but has also sometimes been considered to be a European Homo erectus.

The above photograph compares the Heidelberg jaw (left) with the jaw of a modern human (right). Suffice it to say that the owner of this jaw would definitely attract more attention than the average traveller on the New York subway.

This photograph is from "Humankind Emerging", edited by Bernard Campbell.

This page is part of the Fossil Hominids FAQ at the talk.origins Archive.