Homo sapiens idaltu

Homo sapiens idaltu, also known by extension of the common names of fossils as Herto's man, Herto's men or herto remains, is a subspecies of Homo sapiens described from fossil specimens found near the Ethiopian town of Herto Bouri in 1997. by the team of paleoanthropologists led by Tim White. However, the new discovery was not made public until 2003.

Homo sapiens idaltu is a trinominal name, as is mandatory, according to taxonomy, to name the subspecies; The first two words are Latin and mean human who knows—able to know and reflect on what he knows—, while the third and last is an Amharic word that means elder i>.

Given the place where the remains (three skulls) were found, it was called Herto's Man. These fossils have been dated to about 158,000 years ago, that is, from the Chibanian, formerly called the Middle Pleistocene.

The discovery sparked some controversy among researchers. Many consider Homo sapiens idaltu as an extinct subspecies of Homo sapiens and this is why the trinomial taxonomic name is used. Others, however, consider that Homo sapiens idaltu is only a human being of the current species that maintains slight archaic morphological features in relation to other fossils that are indisputably from Homo sapiens. (i.e.: the Cro-Magnon, Grimaldi's men, etc.), such as Stringer (2003).

If the thesis according to which Homo sapiens idaltu is a subspecies of ours is correct, the old name of Homo sapiens sapiens should be rescued for modern man. This terminology was used when Neanderthal man was considered a subspecies of ours (Homo sapiens neanderthalensis), but later the belief was imposed that Neanderthals and modern humans represented different biological species, so the use of the terms Homo sapiens and Homo neanderthalensis was agreed; although some biologists do not agree with this, since by definition and following Ernst Mayr they belong to the same species, since it has been proven that sapiens and Neanderthals have crossed, obtaining fertile offspring.

The remains of Homo sapiens idaltu were considered the oldest specimens of the human species until the 2005 redaction of the fossils of H. sapiens known as Omo I and Omo II, to which an age of 195,000 years has been attributed and, later, in 2017, the discoveries in Morocco of Jebel Irhoud 10 and 11, about 315,000 years old.

Main fossils

Three skulls are the main remains found in Herto Bouri and whose group is given the common names man of Herto, men of Herto or remains of Herto b>.

In comparative morphological studies they all fit with H. sapiens (especially the globular shape of the skull and face), still with distinctive features, and more typical of African Homo, such as the supraciliary arch, the more robust constitution and a very strong occipital protuberance. projected. However, they do not present the usual prognathism in Neanderthals.

BOU-VP-16/1

BOU-VP-16/1 is an almost complete skull of an adult, with a cranial capacity of about 1450 cm³ (larger than many modern humans).

BOU-VP-16/2

BOU-VP-16/2: parts of another adult skull that could even be larger than the previous one.

BOU-VP-16/5

BOU-VP-16/5 is an almost complete calvaria of a child of about 6 to 7 years old, estimated from the teeth, with a cranial capacity of 1250 cm³.