New Scientist
Image: Nature
It’s being called “the first European” – rather a grand tag for a fragmentary jawbone and some worn teeth. Nevertheless, fossils have been unearthed in northern Spain that are 1.1 to 1.2 million years old and have been assigned to one of our hominin ancestors.
The fragments are 300,000 years older than any previously found in Europe.
José María Bermúdez de Castro at the National Research Centre on Human Evolution in Burgos, Spain, is a member of the research team that made the discovery at the Sima del Elefante cave site in the Sierra de Atapuerca.
He says that, although the new find pushes back the hominin fossil record in Europe, there is indirect evidence that hominins arrive in Europe even earlier.
“[Stone tools from] Pirro Nord in Italy may be older than Sima del Elefante,” he says. “Likewise, the Barranco León and Fuente Nueva 3 Spanish sites have yielded stone tools probably 1.3 million years old.” Read more on newscientist.com…
