La mandibule de Mauer (Homo heidelbergensis), un fossile de référence pour le Pléistocène moyen en Europe

Abstract

The Mauer mandible, discovered in 1907, long remained the only human fossil found in Western Europe dating to the Early Middle Pleistocene. Its attribution to the species Homo heidelbergensis has made it a key fossil and a major reference point in the study of human evolution in Europe. As new human remains were discovered, comparisons with this mandible proved difficult, since this fossil shows almost no morphological similarity to any other. Chronologically ranging between Homo antecessor from Gran Dolina, Atapuerca, Spain, and those from Arago, France, it nevertheless remains virtually the only fossil dated to around 600 ka, a period for which very few human remains have been discovered, with the exception of a few teeth in the lower levels of the Caune de l’Arago, France, at Isernia la Pineta, Italy, and Boxgrove, England, in association with a tibia, and a femur from Notarchirico, Italy.