Cro-Magnon

Cro-Magnons were the first early modern humans. They were the first members of our species, Homo sapiens.

The earliest known Cro-Magnon remains are between 35,000 and 45,000 years old, based on radiometric dating.  The oldest of these, from 43,000  45,000 years ago, were found in Italy and Britain.  Other remains also show that Cro-Magnons reached the Russian Arctic about 40,000 years ago.

Cro-Magnons had powerful bodies, which were usually heavy and solid with strong muscles.  Unlike Neanderthals, which had slanted foreheads, the Cro-Magnons had straight foreheads, like modern humans.  Their faces were short and wide with a large chin.  Their brains were slightly larger than the average human's is today.Stringer C. 2012. What makes a modern human. Nature 485 (7396): 33–35. 

Naming
The name "Cro-Magnon" was created by Louis Lartet, who discovered the first Cro-Magnon skull in southwestern France in 1868.  He called the place where he found the skull Abri de Cro-Magnon.    Abri means "rock shelter" in French; cro means "hole" in the Occitan language; and "Magnon" was the name of the person who owned the land where Lartet found the skull.  Basically, Cro-Magnon means "hole on Magnon's land."

This is why scientists now use the term "European early modern humans" instead of "Cro-Magnons."  In taxonomy, the term "Cro-Magnon" does not mean anything.

Cro-Magnon life

Like most early humans, the Cro-Magnons mostly hunted large animals.  For example, they killed mammoths, cave bears, horses, and reindeer for food.  They hunted with spears, javelins, and spear-throwers.  They also ate fruits from plants.

The Cro-Magnons were nomadic or semi-nomadic.  This means that instead of living in just one place, they followed the migration of the animals they wanted to hunt.  They may have built hunting camps from mammoth bones; some of these camps were found in a village in Ukraine.  They also made shelters from rocks, clay, tree branches, and animal skin (leather).

Related pages
 Neanderthal
 Homo sapiens
 Human evolution

References

Category:Evolutionary biology
Category:Humans
Category:Physical anthropology