The oldest hominid facial bones ever discovered in Western Europe have revealed that the neighborhood was initially inhabited by a previously unknown human lineage . Dated to between 1.1 and 1.4 million years ago , the skeletal remains do n’t match those ofHomo antecessor , which until now was think to have been the first to hit this part of Eurasia .
Found at the Sima del Elefante Site in the Sierra de Atapuerca , northern Spain , the prehistorical face and its long - dead owner have been dubbed " pinkish " . Displaying some resemblance toHomo erectus , the specimen has been assigned asHomoaffinis ( aff.)erectus , pending further analysis and categorization .
Dr Rosa Huguet , who coordinated excavations at the website , told reporters that the find “ introduce a new actor in the story of human phylogeny in Europe , Homoaffiniserectus . This finding provide us to assert that during the early Pleistocene more than one human metal money lived in Europe , and that the first hominid to dwell Western Europe was notHomo antecessoras we previously believed . ”
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The fossilized midface ofHomoaff.erectus.Image credit: Maria D. Guillén / IPHES-CERCA
“ We can not be conclusive with assigning it or even ruling out that it isHomo erectus , ” added Dr María Martinón - Torres , a atomic number 27 - author of a young bailiwick describing the discovery . “ SoHomoaff.erectushighlights this closeness toHomo erectusbut leave spread out the possibility that it may also belong to an totally dissimilar species thanHomo erectus . ”
The discovery helps to fill in some of the gaps in our understanding of world ’s journeying out of Africa . To date , the oldest hominid rest alfresco of the continent issue forth from Romania and Georgia , with the latter assemblage – known as theDmanisi hominid – dated to 1.8 million geezerhood ago .
formally live asHomo georgicus , these corpse are wide consider to present a primitive shape ofHomo erectus , thehuman speciesthat first colonized tumid parts of Eastern Europe and Asia .
In Western Europe , however , the oldest recognizable human fossils belong toHomo antecessor , a vulgar ancestor of modern humans and Neanderthals . Discovered in 1994 at the Gran Dolina site – which lie no more than 250 meter ( 820 metrical foot ) from Sima del Elefante in the Atapuerca coordination compound – these fossils have been dated to between 800,000 and 900,000 age ago .
However , as well as being considerably older than this , Pink also expose radically dissimilar facial morphology , thus suggesting that a unlike human species was present in the field long beforeH. antecessor .
" Homo antecessorshares withHomo sapiensa more modern - search face and a prominent nasal bone structure , whereas Pink ’s facial features are more primitive , resemblingHomo erectus , particularly in its monotonic and underdeveloped nasal social system , " state Martinón - Torres .
“ We also highlight that this universe is unlike from the earliest hominins that have been documented outside of Africa , which are those represented in Dmanisi , ” she adds . “ [ Pink ] is somewhere in an evolutionary space in between the early hominins establish outside Africa [ … ] andHomo antecessor . So I imagine the key determination is that we are document for the first time a hominin universe that we did not know we had in Europe . ”
Harlan Fiske Stone tools and butchered animal remains find out at the website indicate thatHomoaff.erectuswas a competent hunter , although the sketch author consider that around one million years ago , the part saw a turnover in the human population as the specie was replaced byH. antecessor . What ’s undecipherable , however , is whether the two Colorado - existed for a geological period orHomoaff.erectuscompletely disappearedbefore the arriver of the later hominid .
Martinón - Torres articulate the team are now hoping to find more fossils “ that will help us to full empathize who these hominins were , where they come from , how they associate and interact with tardy populations [ … ] and what the eventual fate was . ”
The discipline is publish in the journalNature .
