Homo heidelbergensis mandible, plaster cast
Maker
Dr. F. Krantz of Bonn, Rheinisches Mineralien-Kontor (estab. 1833)
Date
Circa 1908
Description
Plaster cast of a fossil jaw bone found near Heidelberg, Germany, in 1907 in a sand pit beside the River Elsenz, in the village of Mauer. In 1908 the jaw (named ‘Mauer 1’) was described by German scholar Otto Schoetensack and became the type specimen for Homo heidelbergensis. Despite being discovered over a 100 years ago, the jaw was only accurately dated in 2010, and was found to be 609,000 ± 40,000 years old. This jaw is from the genus Homo, but shows a mixture of features intermediate in form between modern humans and our primate ancestors. ‘Palaeoanthropus heidelbergensis’, an obsolete genus name for this specimen, is inscribed on the cast. This cast would have been used in anatomy classes in the 20th century to teach students about the anatomical and osteological evidence for the evolution of humans. This specimen was featured in this article in University of Melbourne Collections magazine: https://museumsandcollections.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/3272335/12-Long-Plaster-casts-25.pdf
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