Palaeoanthropus

Skhul 5.

*Palaeoanthropus* is a dubious genus of "palaeoanthropine" hominid that lived in Eurasia from the Middle to Late Pleistocene.

## Description

*Palaeoanthropus* was named from a single mandible from Mauer, near Heidelberg, Germany, but extends to includes all Neanderthals and (informally) other archaic hominids like *Homo soloensis* and *Homo rhodesiensis*. Additionally, Arthur Keith and Theodore D. McCown (1939) named *P. palestinensis* based on Es Skhul, Nahal Me'arot Nature Reserve and Mugharet el-Zuttiyeh remains as an ancestor species of *Homo heidelbergensis*. Skhul 1-5 were found between 1929 and 1935. 7 adults and 3 children were found; Skhul 1, 4 and 5 are thought to be burials. Perforated Nassarius have been recovered from the area, and are known to be of a different fauna. This suggests the people associated with *Palaeoanthropus* may have collected shells or used them as beads, but are unlikely as a food source. Layer B of Skhul date to 81,000-101,000 years with the electron spin resonance method and 119,000 with the thermoluminescence method. Skhul 5 has a wild boar mandible on its chest. The skull shows prominent supraorbital ridges and a jaw that juts outward, which is countered by a rounded braincase (a modern feature). It was first considered Neanderthaloid (if not, than an *H. neanderthalensis*), but is now considered a modern human, who was very robust. Reck and Khol-Larsen placed hominin remains from Lake Eyasi into a new species of *Palaeoanthropus* in 1936: *P. njarasensis*. The identity of these hominins would change to the genus *Africanthropus*, "*Homo njarasensis*" and eventually *Homo rhodesiensis*[*citation needed*]. They may have been assigned this genus due to Neanderthal-like traits.

## Species

* *P. neanderthalensis*
* *P. heidelbergensis*
* *P. ehringsdorfensis*
* *P. krapinensis*
* *P. palestinensis* (=*H. rhodesiensis* and *H. neanderthalensis*)
* *P. europaeus*
* *P. njarasensis*
* *P. azykhensis*
* *P. soloensis*

## References

1. ↑ https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Palaeoanthropus
2. ↑ https://books.google.ca/books?id=vHKuxy69Lc8C&pg=PA59&lpg=PA59&redir\_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false
3. ↑ https://books.google.ca/books?id=Kl8gAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA90&redir\_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false
4. ↑ https://archive.org/details/stoneageofmountc02join/page/18/mode/1up?view=theater
5. ↑ https://books.google.com/books?id=PjIvb55PxbcC
6. ↑ http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/312/5781/1785
7. ↑ Daniella E. Bar-Yosef Mayer, 2004
8. ↑ https://www.researchgate.net/publication/226145325\_The\_Chronology\_of\_the\_Middle\_Paleolithic\_of\_the\_Levant
9. ↑ https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/0-306-47153-1\_5
10. ↑ https://books.google.com/books?id=PjIvb55PxbcC
11. ↑ https://www.britannica.com/place/Skhul
12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 https://antropogenez.ru/location/211/
13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3 13.4 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/ajpa.1330020208
14. ↑ Sergi, 1910
15. ↑ http://phylopic.org/name/2fcab069-5ee0-464f-8bca-2af13c40e3ad
16. ↑ https://books.google.ca/books?id=7eoCn57OxfsC&pg=PA383&lpg=PA383&dq=palaeoanthropus+soloensis&source=bl&ots=2nFi6kqeno&sig=ACfU3U0sGalSv\_lYO04YCpGjomkGHSyAGA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjcw5DV58b3AhXYHc0KHZkvCpUQ6AF6BAgCEAM#v=onepage&q=palaeoanthropus%20soloensis&f=false