Herto Man

Discovery Fossils of Herto Man were first recovered in 1997 from the Upper Herto Member of the Bouri Formation in the Middle Awash site of the Afar Triangle, Ethiopia. The materials are: BOU-VP-16/1, a nearly complete skull missing the left skullcap; BOU-VP-16/2, skull fragments; BOU-VP-16/3, a parietal bone fragment; BOU-VP-16/4, a parietal fragment; BOU-VP-16/5, a nearly complete skull of a 6- or 7-year old; BOU-VP-16/6, a right upper molar; BOU-VP-16/7, a parietal fragment; BOU-VP-16/18, parietal fragments; BOU-VP-16/42, an upper premolar; and BOU-VP-16/43, a parietal fragment. This region of the world is famous for yielding a series of ancient human and hominin species stretching as far back as 6 million years. "H. s. idaltu" In a simultaneously published paper, anthropologists Tim D. White, Berhane Asfaw, David DeGusta, Henry Gilbert, Gary D. Richards, Gen Suwa, and Francis Clark Howell described the material as just barely outside what is considered an "anatomically modern human" (AMH), beyond the range of variation for any present-day human. They instead considered the earliest "AMHs" specimens from Klasies River Caves, South Africa, or Qafzeh cave, Israel. They did this by comparing BOU-VP-16/1 with the Qafzeh 6 skull, the La Ferrassie 1 skull (a male Neanderthal, H. (s.?) neanderthalensis), the Kabwe 1 skull ("H. (s.?) rhodesiensis"), and 28 present-day male skulls. Consequently, they classified Herto Man as a new palaeosubspecies of H. sapiens as "H. s. idaltu" (with the presumed male BOU-VP-16/1 as the holotype), which represents an intermediary morph between "H. (s.?) rhodesiensis" and present-day H. s. sapiens. The name comes from the local Afar language idàltu "elder". Similarly transitional specimens (at the time, not well-dated) tentatively assigned to "late archaic H. sapiens" had been reported from Ngaloba, Tanzania; Omo, Ethiopia; Eliye Springs, Kenya; and Jebel Irhoud, Morocco. (above) is anatomically similar to Herto Man. White et al. made note of this, but still considered Herto Man "clearly distinct". In 2014, anthropologists Robert McCarthy and Lynn Lucas considered a much larger sample than White et al.—using several specimens representing "archaic Homo", Neanderthal, "early modern H. s. sapiens", and Late Pleistocene H. s. sapiens—and arrived at the same conclusion as Lubsen and Corruccini. Citing these two studies, in 2016, Stringer, in his review of literature regarding the derivation of H. s. sapiens, said the name idaltu, "does not seem justified." The main issue of palaeosubspecies validity lies in the vague definitions of "species" and "subspecies", especially when discussing a chronospecies (an unbroken lineage which gradually changes, making the exact end-morphology and start-morphology of the ancestor and descendant species unresolvable). The original describers in 2019 still upheld the name "H. s. idaltu" because their argument, "depended largely on discrete traits," whereas Mcarthy and Lucas, "focused only on the gross cranial metrics", but also stated debating the exact taxonomic names and labels is overall not as important as understanding trends in human evolution. ==Anatomy==

Like what could be considered an "anatomically modern human", the Herto skull has a high cranial vault (a raised forehead), an overall globular shape in side-view, and a flat face. The brain volume was about 1,450 cc. The skull is quite robust in having a projecting brow ridge, weakly curved parietal bones, and a strongly flexed occipital at the back of the skull. These traits are well within the range of variation of modern humans. Compared to the average present-day human skull, the Herto skull is notably long and has overall large dimensions, although the cheekbones are relatively weak. ==Culture==

Technology The Upper Herto Member is a sandy fluvial (deposited by rivers) unit recording a freshwater lake environment, and has yielded archaeologically relevant remains across a stretch. Locality BOU-A19 preserved 71 artefacts, BOU-A26 331 artefacts, and BOU-A29 194 artefacts, a total of 640. Additionally, BOU-A19B has 29 artefacts, and BOU-A19H 15 artefacts. The tool assemblage contains tools made using the Levallois technique (associated with the African "Middle Stone Age"), as well as cleavers and other bifaces (associated with the earlier Acheulean). Though bifaces and blades are rare (respectively less than 5% and 1% of the tools), it is more likely these tools were frequently made by Herto Man at a different location than that they were indeed rarely produced at all. Such an assemblage is typically labelled as the vaguely defined "Transitional Acheulean", which is found as far back as 280,000 years ago. The Herto site thus indicates the transitional phase was long-lived, and the actual derivation of what is considered "Middle Stone Age" proper was not gradual nor simple. == See also ==