Homo antecessor

Homo antecessor, whose Latin name means pioneer man, is an extinct archaic human recorded in the Sierra de Atapuerca in Spain from about 1.2 to 0.8 million years ago, in the Early Pleistocene. The first fossils were found in 1994 in the Gran Dolina cave and the species was formally described in 1997. It was first proposed as the last common ancestor of modern humans and Neanderthals, but is now seen as an offshoot of the modern human line. Its face is unexpectedly flat and modern in appearance, yet it made only simple pebble and flake stone tools. Stature estimates run from about 162 to 187 centimetres, and the brain may have held 1,000 cubic centimetres or more.