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shard of a skull found in Spain break that human ancestor arrived in Western Europe far before than previously thought , a novel work finds .
The bones were discovered in a cave in the Atapuerca Mountains that was already known as a spot used byHomo antecessor , the species thatNeanderthalslikely evolved from . But the new osseous tissue are hundreds of thou of years older and shaped differently , indicate thatHomo erectus — an antecedent of New human race — also survive in Europe during the EarlyPleistocene(2.6 million to 800,000 years ago ) .
Fragmentary left skull bones alongside a 3D recreation of the right side of the face ofH. aff.erectusfrom Sima del Elefante, Spain.
" This paper enter a new actor into the study of human evolution in Europe,“Rosa Huguet , a paleoanthropologist at the Catalan Institute of Human Paleoecology and Social Evolution and take author of a study published Wednesday ( March 12 ) in the journalNature , allege at a tidings group discussion in advance of publication .
Huguet and colleagues found the facial bone sherd while excavating the cave website of Sima del Elefante ( " Pit of the Elephant " ) in 2022 . When a educatee tell Huguet they had found clappers , " we were very activated , " Huguet suppose , " and in this mo , we thought — 95 % sure — that we had a human remain . "
All of the fragments came from the left side of the brass — specifically , the upper jaw , or upper jaw and part of the cheek bone .
Archaeologists excavate at Sima del Elefante, Spain.
" We did n’t fuck at the start what specifically it was , " bailiwick co - authorJosé María Bermúdez de Castro , a paleoanthropologist at the National Center for Research on Human Evolution in Spain , tell at the news conference . But from the shape of the tooth , it was clear that the bones belonged to a human relative .
After more than two year of research , the team has release their analysis of the fragmentary skeleton , which they nickname " Pink " after Pink Floyd ’s Dark Side of the Moon , calling it the " early human face of Western Europe . "
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Examples of stone tools found at Sima del Elefante, including a quartz cobble, a quartz flake and a chert flake.
Homo erectus in Spain
This human face is amazingly different from that ofH. antecessor , another early specie found in Spain . H. antecessorremains have been discover at several cave website in the Atapuerca Mountains since 1994 , and they date from 1.2 million long time to 800,000 old age ago . Similar to innovative human beings ' faces , the face ofH. antecessoris 2-dimensional and perpendicular .
But the newfangled , fully reconstructed facial skeleton of " Pink " from Sima del Elefante is strikingly different from the antecedently discoveredH. antecessorremains , hint it does not in reality belong to to that speciesas in the beginning thought . It has a more robust face that projects outward , making it look more like our much - olderH. erectusancestors .
Experts cerebrate the first expansion of hominins out of Africa began around 1.8 million year ago , whenH. erectusmoved out through the Levantine corridor , a narrow strip of land that connects Africa to Eurasia . Although website withH. erectusremains are found throughout East Africa and Asia , get of this years in Western Europe are few and far between .
This means the first hominin to make it to Western Europe was notH. antecessoras previously assume , but probablyH. erectus , at least 1.4 million years ago . Because " pinkish " has some anatomic features that do not fit exactly withH. erectus , the squad described it in their subject as " H.aff.erectus , " where " aff . " stand for " affinis " or " exchangeable to " in Latin .
Based on the haggard molars , the squad concluded that " pinkish " was an adult . But because so little of the skeleton remains , they were unable to cypher out if the soul was manful or female . Future paleoproteomic analysis of the tooth enamel , which has protein that can indicate an individual ’s sexual activity , may eventually bring out this selective information .
This is the third clock time that phallus of this research team have discovered hominin fossils in unexpectedly deep layers in this collection of caves , allege study co - authorMaría Martinón - Torres , a paleoanthropologist at the National Center for Research on Human Evolution .
In 1997,H. antecessorwasfirst assignedto bone recover in the Atapuerca Mountains date to about 850,000 years ago , and in 2008 , a couple layers above " pinkish , " member of the teamreporteda fogy dated to 1.1 million to 1.2 million age ago as the " first hominin of Europe . " Although they are ramify by C of thousands of eld , " Pink " may be the same species as the 2008 os , accord to Bermúdez de Castro .
In addition to bone , the team detect stone creature at Sima del Elefante . The simple tools were made out of local crystal , chert and limestone , said study co - authorXosé Pedro Rodríguez - Álvarez , a prehistoric archaeologist at the Catalan Institute of Human Paleoecology and Social Evolution , and animal bones found at the site show grounds of human - created cut marks .
" pinkish " provides further evidence that the Atapuerca Mountains form an important corridor deep in rude resources that human and animals passed through 1.4 million years ago , likely after make it in the area from Eastern Europe .
But there are still enquiry about what find around 1.1 million years ago . Harsh and cold climatic conditionsmay have conduct to the disappearing ofH.aff.erectus , Bermúdez de Castro suggested , followed by the arrival ofH. antecessor .
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However , if the assumption of dramatic climate change in the Atapuerca Mountains is wrong , it is possible that a residual population ofH.aff.erectuscoincided withH. antecessorfor a scant clip , meaning two hominin species overlapped in Western Europe .
" The most important take - rest home message is that this fossil represents the earliest human fossil found so far in Western Europe , " Martinón - Torres said , " document a previously unknown human population in Europe . "
Work at Sima del Elefante and on " pinkish " go on , Martinón - Torres said , let in a hunting for more fossils to fully understand who these hominins were , where they come from , and what interactions they had with other hominins in the area .
Neanderthal quiz: How much do you know about our closest relatives?
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