Cro-Magnons - Ancient Caucasoids in 44,000 - 10,000 BC

Cro-Magnon - European early modern humans - 44,000 - 12,000 BC.

"European early modern humans" (EEMH) is a term for the earliest populations of anatomically modern humans in Europe, who were Caucasoid race. during the Upper Paleolithic. It is taken to include fossils from throughout the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), covering the period of about 48,000 to 15,000 years ago (48–15 ka), spanning the Bohunician, Aurignacian, Gravettian, Solutrean and Magdalenian periods. The term EEMH is equivalent to Cro-Magnon Man, or "Cro-Magnons", a term derived from the Cro-Magnon rock shelter in southwestern France, where the first EEMH were found in 1868. Louis Lartet (1869) proposed Homo sapiens fossilis as the systematic name for "Cro-Magnon Man". W. K. Gregory (1921) proposed the subspecies name Homo sapiens cro-magnonensis. In literature published since the late 1990s, the term EEMH is generally preferred over the common name Cro-Magnon, which has no formal taxonomic status, as "it refers neither to a species or subspecies nor to an archaeological phase or culture". Use of "Cro-Magnon" is mostly restricted to times after the beginning of the Aurignacian proper, c. 37 to 35 ka. The oldest known EEMH fossil remains are found in Bacho Kiro cave, Bulgaria. They are dated from c. 47,000 BC. up to c. 44,000 BC. Other known remains of EEMH confidently dated to before 40 ka were found at Riparo Mochi (Italy), Geissenklösterle (Germany), and Isturitz (France). Other known remains of EEMH can be dated to before 40 ka with some certainty: those from Grotta del Cavallo in Italy, and from Kents Cavern in England, have been radiocarbon dated to 43±2 ka. A number of other early fossils are dated close to or just after 40 ka, including fossils found in Romania (Peștera cu Oase, 39.5±2.5 ka) and Russia (Kostenki-14, 37.5±2.5 ka). The description as "modern" is used as contrasting with the "archaic" Homo heidelbergensis and Homo neanderthalensis, who lived within Europe during about 400 ka to 37 ka, and who with the arrival of EEMH became extinct or absorbed into their lineage. For 28 modern human specimens from 190–25 thousand years ago, average brain volume was estimated to have been about 1,478 cc (90.2 cu in), and for 13 EEMH about 1,514 cc (92.4 cu in). In comparison, present-day humans average 1,350 cc (82 cu in), which is notably smaller. This is because the EEMH brain, though within the variation for present-day humans, exhibits longer average frontal lobe length and taller occipital lobe height. The parietal lobes, however, are shorter in EEMH. It is unclear if this could equate to any functional differences between present-day and early modern humans. EEMH are physically similar to present-day humans, with a globular braincase, completely flat face, gracile brow ridge, and defined chin. However, the bones of EEMH are somewhat thicker and more robust. Compared to modern Europeans, EEMH have broader and shorter faces, more prominent brow ridges, bigger teeth, shorter upper jaws, more horizontally oriented cheekbones, and more rectangular eye sockets. The latter three are seen in present-day East Asians. In early Upper Palaeolithic Western Europe, 20 men and 10 women were estimated to have averaged 176.2 cm (5 ft 9 in) and 162.9 cm (5 ft 4 in), respectively. This is similar to post-industrial modern Northern Europeans. In contrast, in a sample of 21 and 15 late Upper Palaeolithic Western European men and women, the averages were 165.6 cm (5 ft 5 in) and 153.5 cm (5 ft), similar to pre-industrial modern humans. It is unclear why earlier EEMH were taller, especially considering that cold-climate creatures are short-limbed and thus short-statured to better retain body heat. This has variously been explained as: retention of a hypothetically tall ancestral condition; higher quality diet and nutrition due to the hunting of megafauna which later became extinct; functional adaptation to increase stride length and movement efficiency while running during a hunt; increasing territorialism among later EEMH reducing gene flow between communities and increasing inbreeding rate; or statistical bias due to small sample size or because taller people were more likely to achieve higher status in a group and thus were more likely to be buried and preserved. Their vocal apparatus was like that of present-day humans and they could speak. It was generally assumed that EEMH, like present-day Europeans, were light skinned as an adaptation to absorb vitamin D from the less luminous sun farther north. However, of the 3 predominant genes responsible for lighter skin in present-day Europeans—KITLG, SLC24A5, and SLC45A2—the latter two, as well as the TYRP1 gene associated with lighter hair and eye color, experienced selection as late as 19 to 11 thousand years ago during the Mesolithic transition. These three became more widespread across the continent in the Bronze Age.