Homo heidelbergensis: the last shared ancestor
One species splits into two lineages: Neanderthals and us
Quick facts
- When
- About 700,000 to 200,000 years ago
- Where
- Europe; possibly Asia; eastern and southern Africa
- Firsts
- Built shelters; routinely hunted large animals; used wooden spears
- Split
- Ancestor of both Neanderthals (Europe) and Homo sapiens (Africa), diverging 350,000-400,000 years ago
What happened
Homo heidelbergensis lived from about 700,000 to 200,000 years ago across Europe, possibly Asia, and eastern and southern Africa, the Smithsonian's Human Origins Program describes it as an early human with a very large browridge, a larger braincase, and a flatter face than older species, and the first of our lineage to live successfully in colder climates, with a short, wide body suited to conserving heat. It was also a species of firsts: the first to build simple shelters out of wood and rock, the first to routinely hunt large animals, and, alongside the era's oldest definite fire control, the first known to use wooden spears. Mitochondrial DNA evidence points to Homo heidelbergensis, or a population very close to it, as the common ancestor from which two lineages split between about 350,000 and 400,000 years ago: a European branch that led to the Neanderthals, and an African branch, sometimes called Homo rhodesiensis, that led to Homo sapiens.
Why it matters
This is the fork in the road. Every Neanderthal and every modern human descends from a population that looked something like this species, which means the two most-discussed human lineages in this timeline are not separate stories but two branches of one, splitting when part of the population stayed in Europe and part stayed in Africa.
How we know
The Smithsonian's Homo heidelbergensis species page gives the date range, geographic range, physical description, the shelter, hunting, fire, and spear firsts, and states the mitochondrial DNA evidence for the species as the likely common ancestor of Neanderthals and Homo sapiens, with the specific 350,000 to 400,000 year divergence estimate.
Sources
- Evolution of Homo in the Middle and Late Pleistocene (peer-reviewed review, via PubMed Central) · Peer-reviewed (author-declared)pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov · Cited as a "journal" source (no stronger domain match). · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
- Smithsonian Institution. Homo heidelbergensis (Smithsonian Human Origins Program) (2024) · Reputable sourcehumanorigins.si.edu · The domain "humanorigins.si.edu" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
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Part of a timelineHuman Evolution12 events · Seven million years from the last ancestor we shared with other apes to the species writing this sentence.View all →