1.4 million skull fragments associated with mystery human ancestor

The bigger part of the human face, discovered in northern Spain, belongs to a primitive archaic man, noting the most known evidence of homini in Western Europe, anthropologists said on Wednesday.

The facial remains are not those of Homo’s predecessorArchaic human species, whose approximately 900,000 years have been discovered in the same place, according to the study. More recently the fragments of the face belong to Homo connected ERECTUS –and the finding, reported Today, in nature, it shows that the human population in Europe turned at the end of the early Pleistocene.

“This document presents a new actor in the history of human evolution in Europe, Homo connected erectusStudy co -author Rosa Huget, Paleo -Atropologist from Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana I Evolució Social, in a briefing of Nature Press. “This finding allows us to assume that during the early Pleistocene more than an early human species lived in Europe and that the first hominid inhabited Western Europe Homo predecessor, As we believed earlier. “

Thehe Homo connected erectus The fragment was discovered in 2022 and is between 1.1 million and 1.4 million years old. The fossil is the earliest human fossil discovered in Western Europe, according to Maria Martino-Togs, a researcher at Centro Nacional de Investigacíon Sobre la Evolución Humana.

The name of the species can be shortened to Homo AFF. erectusS In the taxonomy, “Af.” comes from Latin affinis, which means “associated with” and is often used to indicate a type closely related to another, but not necessarily the same (in this case, very similar to or possibly being, Signal– A human species that lived from about 2 million to 100,000 years ago, which is thought to be one of our direct ancestors).

The team is called Fossil Pink after Pink Floyd, referring to the band’s album The dark side of the moonS (In Spanish, The hidden face of the moon, with Carat Being interpreted as a “party” or “person.

Face fragment – which was found among about 6,000 remains of fossils, including animal bones with cut traces – adheres to an early man who precedes Homo’s predecessor It remains in place less than 820 feet (250 meters) at a distance of about half a million years. Discovery reveals aspects of hominin migration and evolution forth in time than other remains of Hominin from Europe.

“It is obvious that about a million years ago, there was a replacement for the European population,” says Jose Maria Bermudez de Castro, Paleo -Atropologist of Cenieh and co -author of the newspaper during the same briefing. “A kind of probably linked to Signalwould give up Homo’s predecessorS “

Homo AFF. erectus There are more primitive features of the face – more special in the cheeks area – from this Homo’s predecessorMartino-Togos is added as the middle-facing region looks like ours (in the middle of the face, it looks like ours (Homo sapiens) Features. Whereas our face and that of H. predecessor is vertical and flat, Homo AFF. erectus“Face Projects ahead, similar to Signal Samples. Hence the specification of species – the team is not committed to label the individual Signalbut recognizes the similarities with the more famous Hominid group, although the team cannot categorically assign it SignalS It can be a completely different kind.

The next challenge for the team is to find more fossils to clarify the identity of Homo AFF. erectushis relationship with other hominin types and maybe explaining why the population gave way to Homo’s predecessorS The population is a “momentary photo” of the groups that entered Europe when the climatic conditions were allowed, Martino-Togs said.

“These populations are different from the most hosts that are documented outside Africa,” she added, referring to Dmanisi Homins From Georgia, adding that the newly discovered human group is “somewhere in evolutionary space between the most hominins found outside Africa – represented by Hominins from Dmanissi – and Homo’s predecessorS “

Although the team is not sure the copy is SignalMartino-Toros added that this is the closest thing Signal Still found in Europe.

This was a hectic week for the study of human origin. Yesterday a team of paleoanthropologists evidence found of similar behavior in Neanderthal and early modern human groups that inhabit the Levant about 100,000 years ago – long after Homo AFF. erectus and Homo’s predecessor It disappeared. Neanderthals have already disappeared – but they were so close relatives of our own kind that Two groups intervenedand Neanderthal DNA persistence In our genomes today.

The next steps of the team are to continue to dig – they are yet to work in the deepest layers of Sima del Elefante site, where Homo AFF. erectus The person was found.

It is remarkable that the Pleistocene – an era, so recent in the history of the Earth – has achieved such a variety of homini in a region as small as Western Europe, even though they have been separated for hundreds of thousands of years.

Although the newly listed bone fragments do not fully resolve aspects of our evolutionary origin – if something, they further complicate the story – they contribute to an increasingly notable and complex story of how our species emerge from a variety of hominovi groups and have covered the Earth with a population of 8 billion strong.