Humans in Europe At 1.2 mya
- From: Rich Travsky <traRvEsky@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 26 Mar 2008 16:04:23 -0600
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/03/080326-first-european.html
An analysis of an ancient jaw and teeth has confirmed that humans reached Western
Europe well over a million years ago, far earlier than previously thought.
The prehistoric fossils were excavated last June at Atapuerca in northern Spain,
along with stone tools used for butchering meat.
...
The individual has been labeled a Homo antecessor?a species first named in 1997
based on other human fossils found at Atapuerca. The sex isn't known, but the new
human was likely aged between 30 and 40 at the time of death.
The new findings suggest that H. antecessor was most probably unique to Europe,
the researchers say.
...
For example, 32 stone flints also excavated from the cave date to the same age as
the fossils, according to dig co-director José Maria Bermúdez de Castro of the
National Research Center on Human Evolution in Burgos, Spain.
The flints include simple tools that were likely used by the early humans to hack
up mammal carcasses and get at bone marrow, as evidenced by cut marks found on
nearby limb bones belonging to unidentified herbivores.
"They used the stone tools to take meat off animals, cut the muscles, and break
their bones," Bermúdez de Castro said. "The bones show the marks of these
implements."
Remains of other close-by animals?including rhinoceroses, deer, bison, lynx, wolves,
and bears?were also used to help date the fossils, the study said.
"Since we now know those fossils date to 900,000 [years ago], the time difference
is not great, and, provisionally at least, I think it's logical to assign the
mandible to Homo antecessor," Bermúdez de Castro said.
...
The Spanish-led team adds that the new fossil human likely marks the beginnings of
a native European species represented by the younger finds at Atapuerca.
"We see that these fossils are different from other populations in Asia or in
Africa," Bermúdez de Castro said.
"We think that when populations come to an extreme part of a continent, or to an
island, a process of speciation usually occurs," he added. "This is very normal in
the animal world."
The Atapuerca researchers in 1997 had suggested Homo antecessor as a possible
ancestor of modern humans. But the age of the new fossil find makes this theory
less likely, Bermúdez de Castro admitted.
"Homo antecessor may be very, very old in Europe, and modern humans came from
Africa," he said, making the previous theory "difficult to support."
More likely, Homo antecessor gave rise to Neandertals (often spelled Neanderthals)
in Europe, he said, adding, "it's a good hypothesis to test in the future."
...
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