Homo heidelbergensis – also
Homo rhodesiensis – is an
extinct species of the
genus Homo that lived in Africa, Europe and western Asia between 600 and 200 thousand years ago. The skulls of this species share features with both
Homo erectus and anatomically modern
Homo sapiens; its brain was nearly as large as that of
Homo sapiens. Although the
first discovery - a mandible - was made in 1907 near
Heidelberg in Germany where it was described and named by
Otto Schoetensack, "the great majority of fossils attributed to
Homo heidelbergensis have [only] been obtained recently, beginning in 1997." The
Sima de los Huesos cave at Atapuerca in northern
Spain holds particularly rich layers of deposits that "represent an exceptional reserve of data" where excavations are still in progress.