Anatomy
Large brains and robust crania with major regional variation.
COMPREHENSIVE INTERACTIVE REPORT · Debated grouping
Middle Pleistocene Homo
Heidelbergensis-grade populations773,000–300,000 years ago · Africa and Eurasia
Current synthesis
A way to compare African and Eurasian populations without assuming that every fossil belongs to one uniform Homo heidelbergensis species.
Ecology & food
Wide range of African and Eurasian habitats.
Technology
Acheulean and regional Middle Pleistocene technologies, wooden weapons and repeated-use sites.
Clothing evidence
Hide working occurs in parts of the Middle Pleistocene record, but species-level attribution and routine clothing remain uncertain. Reconstruction is shown without garments.
Behavior & social evidence
Cooperative large-game hunting and controlled fire are documented at some sites, not universally.
Relationships
Includes populations near the ancestry of sapiens, Neanderthals and Denisovans.
Controversies
Taxon boundaries, fossil allocation and the identity of the last common ancestral populations.
What reaches forward
The linked report keeps the single-species model as a hypothesis and explains its limits.
SOURCE DESK