Homo cepranensis facts for kids

Homo cepranensis is the name given to a very old type of human. We only know about it from a single piece of a skull, found in 1994. This fossil was nicknamed "Ceprano Man" because it was found near a town called Ceprano in Italy.

Meet Homo Cepranensis

The Discovery of Ceprano Man

In 1994, an archaeologist named Italo Biddittu found a special skull piece. It was found near Ceprano, a town in Italy, about 89 kilometers (55 miles) southeast of Rome. Because of its location, people started calling this fossil "Ceprano Man." This skull piece is the only part of Homo cepranensis we have found so far.

How Old Is This Ancient Human?

Scientists believe the Ceprano Man fossil is very old. They estimate it is between 350,000 and 500,000 years old. Another nearby site, Fontana Ranuccio, was dated to about 487,000 years ago. Based on this, many scientists think Ceprano Man is most likely around 450,000 years old.

What Did Ceprano Man Look Like?

The skull piece from Ceprano Man shows features that are a mix of different early human species. It seems to be somewhere in between Homo erectus and later species like Homo heidelbergensis. Homo heidelbergensis lived in Europe long before Homo neanderthalensis (Neanderthals) appeared.

Because we only have one skull piece, scientists do not have enough information to fully understand what Homo cepranensis was like. More fossil discoveries would help us learn more about this ancient human.

Images for kids

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  Statistically significant traits that describe the "Mid-Pleistocene cluster" (Mounier et al. 2011)

See also

In Spanish: Hombre de Ceprano para niños