Homo rhodesiensis

Homo rhodesiensis is a proposed hominin species in the genus Homo. Based on a skull found in 1921, scientists believed they had found a new species and named it Homo rhodesiensis. However, today, most experts believe it is within the group of Homo heidelbergensis.Ni, Xijun; Ji, Qiang; Wu, Wensheng; Shao, Qingfeng; Ji, Yannan; Zhang, Chi; Liang, Lei; Ge, Junyi; Guo, Zhen; Li, Jinhua; Li, Qiang; Grün, Rainer; Stringer, Chris (2021-08-28). "Massive cranium from Harbin in northeastern China establishes a new Middle Pleistocene human lineage". The Innovation. 2 (3) 100130. Bibcode:2021Innov...200130N. doi:10.1016/j.xinn.2021.100130. ISSN 2666-6758. PMC 8454562. PMID 34557770.  

Other names, such as Archaic Homo sapiens arcaicus and Homo sapiens rhodesiensis,Bernard Wood (31 March 2011). Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Human Evolution, 2 Volume Set. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 761–762. ISBN 978-1-4443-4247-5. have also been suggested for Homo rhodesiensis. 

 Discovery 
Paleoanthropologists found a single fossil skull in 1921, in the colony of Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) at a mine called Broken Hill (now Kabwe). This skull is sometimes called "Rhodesian man," the "Broken Hill skull," or the "Kabwe skull."

The skull lacks the lower jaw, but otherwise is almost complete. In addition to the cranium, an upper jaw from another individual, a sacrum (bone of the pelvis), a tibia, and two femur fragments were also found.

Later fossil discoveries have been dated to between 600,000 years ago and 320,000Reiner, Whitney B.; Masao, Fidelis; Sholts, Sabrina B.; Songita, Agustino Venance; Stanistreet, Ian; Stollhofen, Harald; Taylor, R.e.; Hlusko, Leslea J. (2017). "OH 83: A new early modern human fossil cranium from the Ndutu beds of Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania". American Journal of Physical Anthropology. 164 (3): 533–545. doi:10.1002/ajpa.23292. PMID 28786473. years ago.

 Kabwe skull 
Initially, in 1974, Bada et al. proposed that the Kabwe skull was 110,000 years old.Bada, Jeffrey L. et al Concordance of collagen-based radiocarbon and aspartic-acid racemization ages  PNAS abstract URL. Since then, the skull has been dated to between 324,000 and 274,000 years old.Grün, Rainer; Pike, Alistair; McDermott, Frank; Eggins, Stephen; Mortimer, Graham; Aubert, Maxime; Kinsley, Lesley; Joannes-Boyau, Renaud; Rumsey, Michael; Denys, Christiane; Brink, James; Clark, Tara; Stringer, Chris (2020-04-01). "Dating the skull from Broken Hill, Zambia, and its position in human evolution" (PDF). Nature. 580 (7803): 372–375. Bibcode:2020Natur.580..372G. doi:10.1038/s41586-020-2165-4. ISSN 1476-4687. PMID 32296179. S2CID 214736650. Unfortunately, the destruction of the paleoanthropological site has made layered dating impossible.

The skull had about 1,100 cm³ inside to hold the brain.Rightmire, G. Philip. The evolution of Homo erectus: comparative anatomical studies of an extinct human species Cambridge University Press, 1993. , . This is a much smaller cranial capacity than modern humans have. The brain size is rather small for such a late date. 

The skull is from an extremely robust (strong) individual, and has the comparatively largest brow-ridges of any known hominid remains. It had a broad face similar to Homo neanderthalensis (i.e. a large nose and thick protruding brow ridges), and has been interpreted as an "African Neanderthal". There are also several features intermediate between modern Homo sapiens and Neanderthals.

 References 

Category:Hominins