Geographisches Institut, Universität Heidelberg, D-69120 Heidelberg, Germany.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2010 Nov 16;107(46):19726-30. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1012722107. Epub 2010 Nov 1.
The Mauer mandible, holotype of Homo heidelbergensis, was found in 1907 in fluvial sands deposited by the Neckar River 10 km southeast of Heidelberg, Germany. The fossil is an important key to understanding early human occupation of Europe north of the Alps. Given the associated mammal fauna and the geological context, the find layer has been placed in the early Middle Pleistocene, but confirmatory chronometric evidence has hitherto been missing. Here we show that two independent techniques, the combined electron spin resonance/U-series method used with mammal teeth and infrared radiofluorescence applied to sand grains, date the type-site of Homo heidelbergensis at Mauer to 609 ± 40 ka. This result demonstrates that the mandible is the oldest hominin fossil reported to date from central and northern Europe and raises questions concerning the phyletic relationship of Homo heidelbergensis to more ancient populations documented from southern Europe and in Africa. We address the paleoanthropological significance of the Mauer jaw in light of this dating evidence.
莫厄尔下颌骨，海德堡人模式标本，于 1907 年在德国海德堡东南 10 公里处的内卡河冲积砂中被发现。该化石是理解阿尔卑斯山以北欧洲早期人类居住的重要关键。鉴于相关的哺乳动物群和地质背景，发现层被置于中更新世早期，但迄今缺乏确认的年代证据。在这里，我们展示了两种独立的技术，即哺乳动物牙齿的电子自旋共振/U 系列法与沙粒的红外荧光法，将莫厄尔的海德堡人类型地点定年为 609 ± 40 千年前。这一结果表明，下颌骨是迄今为止报道的来自中欧和北欧最古老的古人类化石，并对海德堡人与其在欧洲南部和非洲记录的更古老种群的系统发育关系提出了质疑。我们根据这一年代证据来探讨莫厄尔颌骨的古人类学意义。
