Cro-Magnon man, one of the earliest European examples of a fully modern human being, or Homo sapiens. He was about 6 feet tall with an erect body and a head shaped much like that of modern man. Cro-Magnon man dates from about 40,000 B.C., a period when the last great glacier of the Pleistocene epoch was receding.Cro-Magnon man may have entered southern Europe from Asia. He was a cave dweller, as was his Neanderthal predecessor, but he had a less difficult life. He hunted large game such as wild horses, deer, and oxen, which he killed in great abundance. He made a wide variety of tools and weapons of flint, bone, antlers, and ivory. Cro-Magnon man also painted beautiful pictures on the walls of his caves. Some of these are still in existence, such as the Lascaux cave paintings in France.
The name "Cro-Magnon" comes from the caves in Dordogne, France, where the first skeletons of this type were found in 1868. Since then additional skeletons have been discovered in other parts of France and in Germany, Spain, Poland, and Czechoslovakia.
