Radiometric dating of the type-site for Homo heidelbergensis at Mauer, Germany
Günther A. Wagner a,1, Matthias Krbetschek b, Detlev Degering c, Jean-Jacques Bahain d, Qingfeng Shao d, Christophe Falguères d, Pierre Voinchet d,
Jean-Michel Dolo e, Tristan Garcia e, and G. Philip Rightmire f
+Author Affiliations
aGeographisches Institut, Universität Heidelberg, D-69120 Heidelberg, Germany;
bSächsische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Institut für Angewandte Physik, Technische Universität Bergakademie, D-09596 Freiberg, Germany;
cVerein für Kernverfahrenstechnik und Analytik Rossendorf, D-01314 Dresden, Germany;
dDépartement de Préhistoire du Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Unité Mixte de Recherche 7194, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, F-75013 Paris, France;
eCommissariat à l'Energie Atomique, Laboratoire d’Intégration des Systémes et des Technologies, Laboratoire National Henri Becquerel, F-91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France; and
fDepartment of Human Evolutionary Biology, The Peabody Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138
Edited by Erik Trinkaus, The Washington University, St. Louis, MO, and approved October 6, 2010 (received for review August 27, 2010)
Abstract
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.
geochronology, paleoanthropology, physical dating, Quaternary
Footnotes
1To whom correspondence should be addressed.
E-mail: gawag-wagner@web.de.
Author contributions: G.A.W. guided the project and the geological field work; M.K. and D.D. performed the IR-RF analyses; J.-J.B., Q.S., C.F. and P.V. performed the ESR and US analyses; J.-M.D. and T.G. realized the γ irradiations of the tooth enamel samples; G.P.R. placed the Mauer jaw in paleoanthropological context and assessed the evolutionary role of Homo heidelbergensis; and G.A.W., M.K., J.-J.B., C.F., and G.P.R. wrote the paper.
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
This article is a PNAS Direct Submission.
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