Heidelberg jaw

Heidelberg jaw
a human lower jaw of early middle Pleistocene age found in 1907 near Heidelberg, Germany.
[1910-15]

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▪ hominid fossil
also called  Mauer jaw 

      enigmatic human mandible, thought to be about 500,000 years old, found in 1907 in the great sandpit at Mauer, southeast of Heidelberg, Germany. Elephant and rhinoceros remains found in association with the fossil indicate a warm climate; the jaw has been assigned to an interglacial period of the middle Pleistocene Epoch. The chinless mandible is massive, with ascending branches almost as broad as they are high. The teeth, proportionately too small for so large a jaw, are human. The dental arch is parabolic, without spaces between the canines and first premolars, and the molars are like those of modern people but larger.

      The fossil, long an isolated discovery, is difficult to classify. It was originally assigned to its own newly designated species, H. heidelbergensis (Homo heidelbergensis), but this classification fell out of favour, and the jaw was judged to be a European example of H. erectus (Homo erectus). More-recent discoveries, however, have shown the usefulness of postulating a species defined by traits that are shared with both the Neanderthals (H. neanderthalensis) and modern man (H. sapiens (Homo sapiens)) but that are not present in H. erectus. The Heidelberg jaw has many of these features, and it is now categorized by many anthropologists as H. heidelbergensis, along with numerous specimens dating to between about 600,000 and 400,000 years ago that have been found at several African and European sites, such as Bodo (Ethiopia), Kabwe (Kabwe cranium) (Zambia), Petralona (Petralona skull) (Greece), and Arago (France).

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Universalium. 2010.

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Look at other dictionaries:

  • Heidelberg jaw — /haɪdlbɜg ˈdʒɔ/ (say huydlberg jaw) noun a lower jaw supposedly belonging to a very early human species, found in 1907 near Heidelberg, Germany. See Homo heidelbergensis …  

  • Heidelberg jaw — a human lower jaw of early middle Pleistocene age found in 1907 near Heidelberg, Germany. [1910 15] …   Useful english dictionary

  • Heidelberg — /huyd l berrg /; Ger. /huyd l berddk /, n. a city in NW Baden Württemberg, in SW Germany: university, founded 1386. 127,500. * * * City (pop., 2002 est.: 141,509), southwestern Germany, situated on the Neckar River. First mentioned in historical… …   Universalium

  • Heidelberg man — the primitive human being reconstructed from the Heidelberg jaw. [1925 30] * * * …   Universalium

  • Heidelberg man — n. a type of early human known from a fossil lower jaw discovered in 1907 near Heidelberg, Germany: believed to be from the Paleolithic period …   English World dictionary

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  • Heidelberg — Infobox German Location Art = Stadt image photo = Heidelberg 20030918.jpg imagesize = image caption = Heidelberg Castle on hill behind Old Bridge Wappen = Wappen Heidelberg.png lat deg = 49 |lat min = 24 |lat sec = 44 lon deg = 08 |lon min = 42… …   Wikipedia

  • Heidelberg man — Hei′delberg man n. pan a form of Homo erectus reconstructed from a human lower jaw(Hei′delberg jaw )of early middle Pleistocene age, found in 1907 near Heidelberg, Germany • Etymology: 1925–30 …   From formal English to slang

  • Heidelberg man — noun Etymology: Heidelberg, Germany Date: 1920 an early Pleistocene hominid known from a massive fossilized jaw with distinctly human dentition and classified with the direct ancestor (Homo erectus) of modern humans …   New Collegiate Dictionary

  • Homo heidelbergensis — ▪ hominin  extinct species of archaic human (genus Homo) known from fossils dating from 600,000 to 300,000 years ago in Africa, Europe, and possibly Asia. The name first appeared in print in 1908 to accommodate an ancient human jaw discovered in… …   Universalium

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