Topic summary
Anatomically modern humans
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Early modern human.
Anatomical modernity
The term "anatomically modern humans" 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 anatomically modern humans called archaic Homo sapiens. In a convention popular in the 1990s, Neanderthals were classified as a subspecies of H. sapiens, as H. s. neanderthalensis, while anatomically modern humans (or European early modern humans), was taken to refer to "Cro-Magnon" or H. s. sapiens. Under this nomenclature (Neanderthals considered H. sapiens), the term "anatomically modern Homo sapiens" has also been used to refer to European early modern humans ("Cro-Magnons"). It has since become more common to designate Neanderthals as a separate species, H. neanderthalensis, so that anatomically modern human in the European context refers to H. sapiens, but the question is by no means resolved.