Fontéchevade is a cave in Charente,

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

, which contains

Palaeolithic The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic (), also called the Old Stone Age (from Greek: παλαιός ''palaios'', "old" and λίθος '' lithos'', "stone"), is a period in human prehistory that is distinguished by the original development of stone to ...

remains from 200,000 and 120,000 years ago. The fossils consist of two skull fragments. Unlike Neanderthals and ''

Homo sapiens Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large and complex brain. This has enabled the development of advanced tools, culture, ...

'' of the time, the frontal skull fragment lacks any development of a

brow ridge The brow ridge, or supraorbital ridge known as superciliary arch in medicine, is a bony ridge located above the eye sockets of all primates. In humans, the eyebrows are located on their lower margin. Structure The brow ridge is a nodule or crest ...

. This feature led French paleoanthropologists of the time to propose the "pre-sapiens" theory, in which the line to modern humans was said to have branched off before the appearance of the Neanderthals. Subsequent research has cast doubt on the importance of the Fontéchevade evidence. One of the fossils may be from an immature individual or from a period of time later than its surrounding deposits. The other does not preserve the brow area, but other aspects of its morphology are similar to those seen in Neanderthals.

References

* Chase, P.G., Debenath, A., Dibble, H.L. and McPherron, S.P. 2009. ''The Cave of Fontéchevade: Recent Excavations and their Paleoanthropological Implications''. New York: Cambridge University Press. Caves of Nouvelle-Aquitaine Prehistoric sites in France Landforms of Charente {{Charente-geo-stub

See also

References