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get_schwifty t1_isb3ztv wrote

> Using pollen in sediment layers, the scientists dated the footprints to between 850,000 and 950,000 years ago. This age means the footprints may have been left by Homo antecessor, an early human species known to be present in Europe at that time.

Definitions for this are a moving target. They’re sometimes called “archaic humans”, and some include them as part of Homo sapiens. They use trinomials to make a distinction between subspecies like antecessor and neanderthalensis, making us Homo sapiens sapiens.

Another common way to classify them would be Hominin, which includes all of those archaic species, our immediate ancestors, and us. It used to be Hominid, which now is more broad and includes chimps, gorillas, orangutans, etc.

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