[meteorite-list] Zamanshin impact and Homo Heidelbergensis

From: Marco Langbroek <marco.langbroek_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sat, 05 Dec 2009 19:10:28 +0100
Message-ID: <4B1AA214.6050305_at_wanadoo.nl>

> Note that no name is given for this homonid right now.
>
> This homonid was likely the common ancestor for sapiens and neanderthal, with the two populations split by the Zamanshin impact.

Actually, the formal publication of these Dmanisi fossils have named it Homo
georgicus. It is somewhere on the brink, morphologically, of H. habilis and H.
erectus/ergaster. I.e., current thoughts are more and more that it is ancestral
to Homo erectus/ergaster (and might indate that erectus/ergaster evolved outside
of Africa! And migrated *into* Africa).

Note that *no-one* has ever classified this Dmanisi hominin as H.
heidelbergensis. It is twice to thrice as old anyway as any other specimen
classified as H. heidelbergensis.

Last week I had the pleasure of being present at the opening of the exhibit the
link talks about by the way, and see the specimen in question.

Zhamanshin is, I believed, dated at 0.9 Ma so I see no clear link between the
Zhamanshin impact and this 1.8 Ma hominin. It is twice as old as the impact.

- Marco

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Dr Marco Langbroek

Institute for Geo- & Bioarchaeology (IGBA)
Faculty of Earth and Life Sciences
VU University Amsterdam
De Boelelaan 1085
1081 HV Amsterdam, the Netherlands
room O-420

tel.: +31 (0)20 5987669
e-mail: marco.langbroek at falw.vu.nl
web (1): http://www.palaeolithic.nl
web (2): http://www.falw.vu.nl/igba
web (3): http://www.clue.nu
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Received on Sat 05 Dec 2009 01:10:28 PM PST