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The story of human development in Europe has a new personality.
The fossilized bone fragments discovered in a cave in northern Spain in 2022 revealed an unknown human population who had previously lived more than 1.1 million years ago, according to a new research.
Located on the SIMA Del Elefante site in the ATAPUERCA Mountains, the excavations form a partial skull consisting of the left side of the adult Huminin face. Mineral bones are the oldest human fossil residue so far in Western Europe.
However, it was not immediately clear prehistoric humans and the team and the study describing the excavations, which were published on Wednesday in the magazine natureIt does not offer a final answer.
The team suspects that samples belong to Homo erectionA well -known type of fossils in Africa and Asia, but its remains are not found categorically in Europe.
“This conclusion is the most honest proposal that we can present with our evidence,” Maria Martinon Torres, Director of Sense, the National Center for Human Development Research in Spain, told a newspaper newspaper on Tuesday.
“He is careful, but it is also bold, because we do not close the possibility of being different.”
The original fossils, called ATE7-1, from the mid-mysterious midfield at the SIMA Del Elefante site in the Atapuerca Mountains near Borgos, Spain. – Maria de Gillin/iPhes-Cerca
Early human relatives are mysterious
The mountainous region of Spain was where excavations were found an important language for the old science.
In the mid -nineties, scientists have identified an early humanitarian relative known as Homo link from about 80 fossils It is revealed at a site near Sima Del Elefante called Gran Dolina. This is still a date to about 850,000 years.
However, Martinon Torres said that the skull excavation morphology in 2022 did not match the features of the Homo link. It was believed that this ancient man was the oldest known resident in Western Europe, of the preceding Neanderthal, who appeared on the continent about 400,000 years ago.
Homo Rorancesor had a “very similar face, very similar to the face we have, and Homo Sapiens, which is vertical and flat. However, this new huntinin is different.
“It has a more vulnerable face … which makes it similar to the other Homo (samples).”
The team also re -analyzed a Partial below the jaw bone It was found in 2007 at Sima Del Elefante, but at a slightly higher level of sediments. Study authors now believe that he belongs to the same prehistoric human population.
However, with only small parts of the face, it was impossible to define Huminin species categorically. As such, the team appointed it to Homo Affinis Erectus, with Affinis, meaning, to indicate that Al -Ahfouri is closely related to known species.
“We still have to dig low levels of Sima Del Elefante. So who knows? Martinon Torres said:” We may have more surprises. “
“I think the main result is that we are first documenting the Huminin population, we did not know us in Europe.”
Intelligence work
Chris Strenger, the leader of the human development research at the Natural History Museum in London, said the discovery was a “very important discovery.”
“The shape of the face is different from the shape of the audience (and H. Sapiens) in features such as the least prominent nose and the bones of the least sensitive cheek, and thus very similar to some of the fossils.”
“But I believe that the authors are right to link the discoveries from Elefante to the H. Erectus with caution. It is very incomplete for any final conclusion.”
The study said that rebuilding the fossil -fossil face required to combine traditional techniques, such as analysis and comparison of excavations through visual examination, with advanced photography and 3D analysis. Researchers do not return to the history of excavations directly, but based on three different ways of the history of a layer of sediments that included excavations that included their ages between 1.4 million and 1.1 million years.
The team also regained the bones of animals with signs of cutting and stone tools used for the corpse butcher from the site. The study said that the residents were inhabiting the forest environment with wet herbal lands, which were rich in prey.
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