ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Tautavel Man

Okay kiddo, today let's talk about a special type of person called the Tautavel man.

The Tautavel man was a human who lived a very, very long time ago. We're talking about 450,000 years ago - that's like, way before your great-great-great-great-great-great-grandparents were born!

He lived in a place called Tautavel, which is a spot in France. Tautavel man was a kind of ancestor to humans like you and me, but he looked a little different. He was shorter and stockier than us, and he had bigger brow ridges and jaws.

Tautavel man lived during a very different time in history. There weren't buildings or cities or even cars back then! Instead, Tautavel man had to rely on nature to survive. He had to hunt for food and make his own tools to protect himself from danger.

Scientists found the remains of a Tautavel man in a cave in Tautavel, France, in the 1970s. They looked at his bones and other things he left behind and learned a lot about him and how he lived. It's really amazing that we can learn about something that happened so long ago!

So there you have it, kiddo! Tautavel man was a special kind of human who lived a super long time ago and is sort of like a great-great-great-great-great-great-grandparent to us.