Homo sapiens first appeared in the fossil record between 200,000 to 300,000 years ago, The fossils were the Swanscomb man from England and Steinheim man from Germany.

a) The Swanscomb skull, b) The Steinheim skull There are only slight physical differences between Homo erectus an9 Homo sopiens and the transition between the two species is obvious from the earliest known groups of Homo sapiens, the Neanderthal man. For this reason some authorities prefer to place Neanderthal man under H. erectus. Whereas H. sapiem is characterised by Large and round brain case, smaller brow ridges and a more pronounced chin as compared to pithecanthropines, Neanderthalers were more or less intermediate.