While Africa has been central at various periods, it is uncertain where key developments in human evolution took place during the period when species like Homo habilis, Homo erectus, and Homo heidelbergensis evolved.
These footprints likely belonged to Homo antecessor or Homo heidelbergensis.
Homo heidelbergensis emerged around 800,000 years ago and lived in Europe for hundreds of thousands of years.
Neanderthals emerged around 430,000 years ago and coexisted with Homo heidelbergensis.
This species evolved from earlier hominins like Homo heidelbergensis.