Question

Heidelberg man is
A. Homo erectus
B. Homo sapiens
C. Homo soloensis
D. Homo rhodesiensis

Answer 1

Hint: The jaws of the Heidelberg man were extremely large and robust but their teeth were relatively smaller. The cranial cavity was large as compared to other ancient species of humans.

Complete answer:
Based on the skull features, the Heidelberg man i.e. Homo heidelbergensis has been found to be similar to the Homo erectus as they had large and robust teeth in their jaws just like the Homo erectus and also have a large cranial cavity which was nearly as large as Homo erectus and modern man.

Additional information:
- Heidelberg man was dispersed throughout the Eastern and Southern Africa and also in some parts of Europe like Italy, Germany, Portugal, Spain, etc.
- It was an interesting thing with this species of man as different populations of this species have been found to be sufficiently different enough and they seem to be different subspecies.
- The average cranial capacity of Heidelberg man was about 1206 cc which was comparable to the cranial capacity of Homo erectus as 973 cc.
- When their outer and middle ear was analyzed morphologically, it was found that their auditory sensitivity was similar to modern humans.

So, the correct answer is ‘Homo erectus’.

Note:
- Homo erectus is also called the upright man and evidence has shown that they appeared about 2 million years ago.
- Homo erectus was the first recognizable species of the genus Homo and considered as the oldest known early humans having some similar characters to the modern human.
- Homo erectus also had a gait pattern that was similar to modern humans and their body proportions were also somewhat similar to the modern man.