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One of the present challenges in the study of human evolution is to recognize the hominin taxon that was ancestral to  Homo sapiens . Some researchers regard  H. heidelbergensis  as the stem species involved in the evolutionary divergence leading to the emergence of  H. sapiens  in Africa, and to the evolution of the Neandertals in Europe. Nevertheless, the diagnosis and hypodigm of  H. heidelbergensis  still remain to be clarified. Here we evaluate the morphology of the incomplete cranium (calvarium) known as Ceprano whose age has been recently revised to the mid of the Middle Pleistocene, so as to test whether this specimen may be included in  H. heidelbergensis . The analyses were performed according to a phenetic routine including geometric morphometrics and the evaluation of diagnostic discrete traits. The results strongly support the uniqueness of  H. heidelbergensis  on a wide geographical horizon, including both Eurasia and Africa. In this framework, the Ceprano calvarium – with its peculiar combination of archaic and derived traits – may represent, better than other penecontemporaneous specimens, an appropriate ancestral stock of this species, preceding the appearance of regional autapomorphic features.

The Stem Species of Our Species: A Place for the Archaic Human Cranium from Ceprano, Italy