Homo antecessor

Homo antecessor is a proposed archaic human species of the Lower Paleolithic, known to have been present in Western Europe (Spain, England and France) between about 1.2 million and 0.8 million years ago (Mya). It was described in 1997 by Eudald Carbonell, Juan Luis Arsuaga and J. M. Bermúdez de Castro, who based on its 'unique mix of modern and primitive traits' classified it as a previously unknown archaic human species. The fossils associated with Homo antecessor represent the oldest direct fossil record of the presence of Homo in Europe. The species name antecessor proposed in 1997 is a Latin word meaning 'predecessor', or 'vanguard, scout, pioneer'. Authors who do not accept H. antecessor as a separate species consider the fossils in question an early form of H. heidelbergensis or as a European variety of H. erectus. H. antecessor has been proposed as a chronospecies intermediate between H. erectus (c. 1.9–1.4 Mya) and H. heidelbergensis (c. 0.8–0.3 Mya). While H. heidelbergensis is widely accepted as the immediate predecessor of H. neanderthalensis, and possibly H. sapiens, the derivation of H. heidelbergensis from H. antecessor is debatable. H. antecessor's discoverers suggested H. antecessor as a derivation of African H. erectus (H. ergaster) which would have migrated to the Iberian Peninsula at some point before 1.2 Mya, and developed into H. heidelbergensis by 0.8 Mya, and further into H. neanderthalensis after 0.3 Mya. Other authors would classify H. antecessor as an early form of H. heidelbergensis, which by the taxonomic principle of priority would extend the range of H. heidelbergensis to 1.2–0.3 Mya. Klein (2009) deems H. antecessor 'an unlikely ancestor for H. heidelbergensis', interpreting the presence of H. antecessor an early 'failed attempt to colonize southern Europe'. The classification of H. antecessor as a separate species remains open to debate as the fossil record is fragmentary, and especially as no complete skull has been found, with only fourteen fragments and lower jaw bones known. Since the anatomical parallels to H. sapiens were found in juveniles or children, the possibility has been argued 'that H. antecessor adults didn't really look much like H. sapiens at all'. H. antecessor was about 1.6–1.8 m (5½–6 feet) tall, and males weighed roughly 90 kg (200 pounds). Their brain sizes were roughly 1,000 to 1,150 cm³, smaller than the 1,350 cm³ average of modern humans. Due to fossil scarcity, very little more is known about the physiology of H. antecessor, yet it was likely to have been more robust than H. heidelbergensis. According to Juan Luis Arsuaga, one of the co-directors of the excavation in Burgos and reported in a Spanish newspaper, H. antecessor might have been right-handed, a trait that makes the species different from the other apes. This hypothesis is based on tomography techniques. Arsuaga also claims that the frequency range of audition is similar to H. sapiens, which makes him suspect that H. antecessor used a symbolic language and was able to reason. Arsuaga's team is currently pursuing a DNA map of H. antecessor.