Woodward (1921) established Homo rhodesiensis with the Kabwe skull, E686, as the holotype. Pycraft (1928) provided a detailed morphological description and established rhodesiensis as the type species for a new genus, Cyphanthropus. Grun et al. (2020) provided updated geochronology for the holotype and commented on the taxonomy. Additional commentary on systematics and taxonomy can be found in Athreya and Hopkins (2021), Schwartz and Tatersal (2010).
While this name has clear priority over other names associated with Middle Pleistocene (Chibanian) hominids from Africa, Roksandic et al. (2022) made a compelling argument for suppressing or ignoring the name to decolonize paleoanthropology (but see Delson and Stringer, 2022; Sarmiento and Pickford, 2022). The ICZN has no mechanism for suppressing names on these grounds and has demonstrated a reluctance to do so in prior petitions brought before the commission (Seríaco et al., 2023). For additional discussion on this topic see the entry for Homo bodoensis.
