Lower jaw from Mauer Homo Heidelbergensis

This massive jaw was the oldest known Hominid fossil from Europe until the 90`s of the last century and is the typus specimen of H. Heidelbergensis. It was found in a gravel pit near the village of Mauer, southeast of Heidelberg/Germany on the 21.10.1907.

Otto Schoetensack published the find a year later. It is dated around 500 000 years old and shows a more primitive anatomy than later Neanderthal or sapiens populations.The massive jaw shows relatively small molars, that are more in the spectrum of modern men that in H. erectus, of whom H. Heidelbergensis is the european Variation.