The discovery of Herto Man was especially significant at the time, falling within a long gap in the fossil record between 300 and 100 thousand years ago and representing the oldest dated H. sapiens remains then described.

[2] This region of the world is famous for yielding a series of ancient human and hominin species stretching as far back as 6 million years.

[1] By the time Herto Man was discovered, based on genetic analyses and the fossil record after 120,000 years ago, it was largely agreed that modern humans H. s. sapiens evolved in Africa (recent African origin model), but it was debated if this was a continent-wide or localised process.

In regard to the localised model, the antiquity of the Herto Man and the several similar specimens of presumably equal or even older age distributed across East Africa shifted the focus to that region.

Because this date overlaps with "H. rhodesiensis", the Irhoud remains also demonstrate that these transitional morphs, including Herto Man, represent a rapid evolution of the sapiens face, with gradual modifications to the braincase among populations distributed across Africa, beginning as early as 300,000 years ago.

[5] In a simultaneously published paper, anthropologists Tim D. White, Berhane Asfaw, David DeGusta, Henry Gilbert, Gary D. Richards, Gen Suwa, and Francis Clark Howell described the material as just barely outside what is considered an "anatomically modern human" (AMH), beyond the range of variation for any present-day human.

Similarly transitional specimens (at the time, not well-dated) tentatively assigned to "late archaic H. sapiens" had been reported from Ngaloba, Tanzania; Omo, Ethiopia; Eliye Springs, Kenya; and Jebel Irhoud, Morocco.

[1] In another simultaneously published paper, British physical anthropologist Chris Stringer doubted the validity of "H. s. idaltu", saying the material was similar to some Late Pleistocene Australasian specimens.

[6] In 2014, anthropologists Robert McCarthy and Lynn Lucas considered a much larger sample than White et al.—using several specimens representing "archaic Homo", Neanderthal, "early modern H. s. sapiens", and Late Pleistocene H. s. sapiens—and arrived at the same conclusion as Lubsen and Corruccini.

[9] Like what could be considered an "anatomically modern human", the Herto skull has a high cranial vault (a raised forehead), an overall globular shape in side-view, and a flat face.

[1] The Upper Herto Member is a sandy fluvial (deposited by rivers) unit recording a freshwater lake environment, and has yielded archaeologically relevant remains across a 5 km (3.1 mi) stretch.

The Herto site thus indicates the transitional phase was long-lived, and the actual derivation of what is considered "Middle Stone Age" proper was not gradual nor simple.

BOU-VP-16/2 also presents evidence of repetitive scraping around the circumference of the braincase (generally interpreted as a symbolic modification rather than for consumption), and the lack of fragments from the base of the skull may mean the specimen was deposited as an isolated skullcap to begin with.

The occipital bone and foramen magnum (the base of the skull) were broken into, and the edges were polished and smoothed off, which is similar to the mortuary practices of some Papuan tribes.