Editing Early modern human (section)

=== Anatomical modernity ===
The term "anatomically modern humans" (AMH) is used with varying scope depending on context, to distinguish "anatomically modern" ''Homo sapiens'' from [[archaic humans]] such as Neanderthals and Middle and [[Lower Paleolithic]] hominins with transitional features intermediate between ''H. erectus'', Neanderthals and early AMH called ''archaic Homo sapiens''.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1OU-DgAAQBAJ&pg=PA358 |title=Processes in Human Evolution: The Journey from Early Hominins to Neanderthals and Modern Humans |isbn=978-0198739906 |last1=Ayala |first1=Francisco José |last2=Conde |first2=Camilo José Cela |year=2017 |publisher=Oxford University Press |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> In a convention popular in the 1990s, Neanderthals were classified as a [[human subspecies|subspecies]] of ''H. sapiens'', as ''H. s. neanderthalensis'', while AMH (or [[European early modern humans]], EEMH) was taken to refer to "[[Cro-Magnon]]" or ''H. s. sapiens''. Under this nomenclature (Neanderthals considered ''H. sapiens''), the term "anatomically modern ''Homo sapiens''" (AMHS) has also been used to refer to EEMH ("Cro-Magnons").<ref>{{cite book |last=Schopf |first=J. William |title=Major Events in the History of Life|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=py01HMuAIh4C&pg=PA168 |year=1992 |publisher=Jones & Bartlett Learning |isbn=978-0867202687 |pages=168– |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> It has since become more common to designate Neanderthals as a separate species, ''H. neanderthalensis'', so that AMH in the European context refers to ''H. sapiens'', but the question is by no means resolved.{{refn|group=note|This is a question of conventional terminology, not one of a factual disagreement. Pääbo (2014) frames this as a debate that is unresolvable in principle, "since there is no definition of species perfectly describing the case."<ref>{{cite book |last=Pääbo |first=Svante |author-link=Svante Pääbo |title=Neanderthal Man: In Search of Lost Genomes |publisher=[[Basic Books]] |location=New York |year=2014 |page=237}}</ref>}}

In this more narrow definition of ''H. sapiens'', the subspecies ''[[Homo sapiens idaltu]]'', discovered in 2003, also falls under the umbrella of "anatomically modern".<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2003/06/11_idaltu.shtml |first=Robert |last=Sanders |publisher=UC Berkeley News |title=160,000-year-old fossilized skulls uncovered in Ethiopia are oldest anatomically modern humans |date=11 June 2003 |access-date=2019-05-07}}</ref> The recognition of ''H. sapiens idaltu'' as a [[human subspecies|valid subspecies]] of the anatomically modern human lineage would justify the description of contemporary humans with the subspecies name ''Homo sapiens sapiens''.<ref name="White03">{{Cite journal |last1=White |first1=Tim D. |author-link=Tim White (anthropologist) |last2=Asfaw |first2=B. |last3=DeGusta |first3=D. |last4=Gilbert |first4=H. |last5=Richards |first5=G. D. |last6=Suwa |first6=G. |last7=Howell |first7=F. C. |year=2003 |title=Pleistocene ''Homo sapiens'' from Middle Awash, Ethiopia |journal=[[Nature (journal)|Nature]] |volume=423 |issue=6491 |pages=742–747 |bibcode=2003Natur.423..742W |doi=10.1038/nature01669 |pmid=12802332 |s2cid=4432091}}</ref> However, biological anthropologist [[Chris Stringer]] does not consider ''idaltu'' distinct enough within ''H. sapiens'' to warrant its own subspecies designation.<ref>{{Cite journal |title= Human evolution: Out of Ethiopia |journal=[[Nature (journal)|Nature]] |volume=423 |issue=6941 |pages=693–695 |date=12 June 2003 |bibcode=2003Natur.423..692S |last1= Stringer |first1=Chris |doi=10.1038/423692a |pmid=12802315 |s2cid=26693109}}</ref>{{sfn|Stringer|2016|p=20150237}}

A further division of AMH into "early" or "robust" vs. "post-glacial" or "[[gracile]]" subtypes has since been used for convenience. The emergence of "gracile AMH" is taken to reflect a process towards a smaller and more fine-boned skeleton beginning around 50,000–30,000 years ago.<ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.1073/pnas.0707650104 |title=Recent acceleration of human adaptive evolution |journal=[[Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences]] |volume=104 |issue=52 |pages=20753–20758 |year=2007 |last1=Hawks |first1=J. |last2=Wang |first2=E. T. |last3=Cochran |first3=G. M. |last4=Harpending |first4=H. C. |last5=Moyzis |first5=R. K. |bibcode=2007PNAS..10420753H |pmid=18087044 |pmc=2410101 |doi-access=free}}</ref>