Fossils of older humans are found in cave in Spain

The history of human evolution in Europe has a new character. Fragments of fossilized bones discovered in a cave in northern Spain in 2022 revealed a previously unknown human population who lived for more than 1.1 million years according to new research.

Found on Sima del Elephant site, in the atapuerca mountains, fossils make up a partial skull that includes the left side of the face of an adult hominid. Mineralized bones are the remains of the oldest humans found so far in Western Europe.

However, it was not immediately obvious which kind of prehistoric human the team had found, and the study that describes the fossils, published on Wednesday (12) in Nature magazinedoes not have a definitive answer.

The team suspects that the specimens belonged to Homo Erectus, a group well known as fossils found in Africa and Asia, but whose remains were never conclusively found in Europe.

“This conclusion is the most honest proposal we can do with the evidence we have,” said María Martin-Torres, director of Cenieh, the National Center for Human Evolution Research in Spain, at a press conference on Tuesday (11).

“It’s cautious, but also a little bold, because we are not closing the possibility that it is something different.”

Mysterious primitive human relatives

The mountainous region of Spain where fossils were found has been an important place for PaleoAnthropology. In the mid -1990s, scientists identified a primitive human relative known as Homo predecessor from about 80 skeletons discovered in a place near the Sima del Elephant named Gran Dolina. These remains date from approximately 850,000 years.

However, Martin-Torres said that the morphology of the skull fossil found in 2022 did not correspond to the characteristics of the predecessor homo. It was believed that this archaic human was the oldest known inhabitant in Western Europe, prior to Neanderthals, who appeared on the continent about 400,000 years ago.

Homo predecessor had “a very modern face, very similar to the face that our species, Homo sapiens, has, which is vertical and flat. However, this new hominid is different, ”she said. He “has a much more projected face forward … which makes him similar to other homo erectus specimens,” he added.

The team also reanalized a partial jaw found in 2007 in Sima del Elephant, but at a slightly higher level of sediment. The study authors now believe it belonged to the same prehistoric humans.

However, with only small parts of the face, it was impossible to conclude the species of the hominid. Thus, the team designated him as Homo Affinis Erectus, with affinis meaning “similar to”, to indicate that the fossil is closely related, but is distinct from a known group.

“We still have to excavate the lower levels of Sima del Elephant. So, who knows? We may have more surprises, ”said Martin-Porres. “I think the main discovery is that we are documenting for the first time a hominid population that we didn’t know we had in Europe.”

Detective work

Chris Stringer, human evolutionary research leader at the London Natural History Museum, said the discovery is a “very important finding.”

“The shape of the face is distinct from that of Homo predecessor (and H. sapiens) in characteristics such as the least prominent nose and the less delicate face apples, resembling some H. Erectus fossils,” Stringer said by email. He was not involved in the research.

“But I think the authors are right in cautiously relate Elephant’s findings to the H. Erectus species. They are very incomplete for any definitive conclusion. ”

The reconstruction of the fragmented face fossil required the combination of traditional techniques, such as the analysis and visual comparison of fossils, with advanced image technologies and 3D analysis, according to the study.

The researchers did not directly dated the skeleton pieces, but based on three different methods to determine the age of the sediment layer in which they were embedded, estimated that they have between 1.4 million and 1.1 million years.

The team also recovered bones of animals with cuts of cuts and stone tools used for carcass processing on site. According to the study, this population would have inhabited a forest environment with damp prey, rich in prey.

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This content was originally published in fossils of older humans are found in cave in Spain on CNN Brazil.

Source: CNN Brasil