A new discovery of Homo erectus in central Europe

Abstract

This paper presents a study of the new middle Pleistocene skeletal remains of man from Bilzingsleben in the German Democratic Republic. The skull fragments (os frontale, os occipitale) of the Bilzingsleben man can be classified as far as the morphology is concerned, as belonging to the form of Homo erectus . The closest analogies with respect to the middle Pleistocene finds of fossil man have been found in Olduvai hominid 9, Sangiran 17, and in the configuration of the occipital part of Sinanthropus III. Certain differences from the Asian forms of Homo erectus may be considered as a geographic expression of the variability of Homo erectus forms in Europe. For the above reasons there was established the taxon n. ssp. Homo erectus bilzingslebenensis . The find from Bilzingsleben, which represents the forms of Homo erectus , represents evidence of the contemporary existence of two morphologically different species of man in the Middle Pleistocene in Europe. These are the forms of Homo erectus , represented by finds from Bilzingsleben and Vertesszöllös and the forms of Homo sapiens , represented by the phylogenetic race of Homo sapiens steinheimensis with finds from Steinheim and Swanscombe.