The Homo heidelbergensis

The origin of mankind has always been an exciting research subject for both laymen and scientists. The science dealing with human fossils, called paleoanthropology, has always been marked with sensational excavation findings.

One of the earliest spectacular discoveries was the lower jaw of an archaic human being in a sandpit, in the village of Mauer, near Heidelberg, on the 21st of Oct 1907. Prof. Otto Schoetensack first described and named it Homo heidelbergensis.

With an age of about 600 000 years, it is the oldest found human fossil in Central Europe. Although many changes and variations in the genealogy occurred since then, the name has remained to the present day.