Neanderthal man
Hombre de Neandertal
- Date
- 1856-1864 · confidence high
- Place
- Neander Valley, Düsseldorf, Germany
- Credited to
- Johann Carl Fuhlrott, Hermann Schaaffhausen; William King (name Homo neanderthalensis, 1864)
- People
- 👤 Hermann Schaaffhausen1816–1893👤 Johann Carl Fuhlrott1803–1877👤 William King1809–1886
- Field
- Life & health
What was discovered
Remains from the Feldhofer cave recognised as an extinct and distinct human form, the first fossil hominin species described. It opened up palaeoanthropology.
Virchow interpreted it as a pathological modern human.
What it led to
- palaeoanthropology
- acceptance of human evolution
- studies of hybridisation with sapiens (Neanderthal genome, 2010)
Built on
- Engis (1829) and Gibraltar (1848) skulls, unrecognised