The Site of Atapuerca, in Burgos, has just contributed a new piece in the puzzle of the human evolution of those that produce a shock in the world of paleontology. The team of ROSA HUGUET He has identified the bones of the face of a hominid who lived in this place between 1.1 and 1.4 million years ago, prior to Homo antecessor and with more primitive features, which they have baptized as Homo affinis erectus (for its resemblance as Homo erectus).
In a work published on Wednesday In the magazine Naturescientists describe the fossil remains found in the year 2022 at the sima of the elephant’s chasm, two meters below the level at which a hominid jaw was found in 2007. When being presumably previous, it is the oldest human ‘face’ discovered in Western Europe, only surpassed in ancient times by the fossil remains found In DmanisiGeorgia, which have been dated between 1.8 and 1.6 million years.
For the authors, the main value of the discovery is that it indicates that in the lower Pleistocene Western Europe could be inhabited by at least two species, Homo antecessor and the new Homo affinis erectusabout 300,000 years before. In other words, the date of entry of the first humans to this area of the continent is delayed and the panorama is more complex than we believed. “We are opening a new page in the history of human evolution in Europe,” he says José María Bermúdez de Castroco -director of the Atapuerca project and co -author of the study.
The fragments consist of approximately one third of the left side of an adult individual. “We have part of the maxillary bone, part of the start of the nasal and the base of the orbital, the part under the eye,” explains Rosa Huguet, who is a researcher of the IPHES-CERCA. “We had it in fragments and we were hitting it, in addition to making digital reconstruction in 3D. And what we saw was that the face is different, that it does not have that modern morphology that presents Homo antecessorbut has a face with much more primitive features. ”
A paradigm shift
Huguet recalls the emotion contained and the prudence of the morning in which the remains appeared, on June 30, 2022, the last day of the first turn of the excavation. “We went out with the conviction, in 95%, that we had found a human fossil of a very old chronology,” he says. “It was very exciting for everyone, especially for Rosa and Xose Pedro Rodríguezwhich are the main authors, ”says Bermúdez de Castro. “It didn’t seem like a face, we had to hit the pieces and we didn’t know what it was.”
The decision to call “Pink”The fossils left the two co -director of the excavation, Bermúdez de Castro and Eudald Carbonell. “We both like them a lot Pink Floyd And the face of this stranger, who has been more than one million years hiddenbrought us the title of his famous album to mind, The hidden face of the moon”, Explains Bermúdez de Castro. “A new character in the lower pleistocene just appeared and this totally changes the paradigm we had so far,” Huguet summarizes. “It shows us that Homo antecessor He was not alone, in the sense that it was not the only species that lived in Europe at that time, that is, there were already hominids in Europe. ”
It shows us that ‘homo predecessor’ was not the only species that lived in Europe at that time, that is, there were already hominids in Europe
ROSA HUGUET
– IPHES-CERCA researcher and main author of the study
For scientists there are two great open unknowns. On the one hand, if this individual and the previous jaw found in the elephant’s chasm are of the same species. “They share archaic features, but it is two meters below, that is, there is a level in the middle and that is a lot of chronological route,” says Bermúdez de Castro. “They could be of the same species, but of course not the same population.”
The other issue is whether this new species and Homo antecessor They could coexist at some point, what the paleontologist seems very unlikely, since one is dated between 1.1 and 1.4 million and the remains of Homo antecessor (found in the Great Dolina) They are approximately 860,000 years ago. “One of the hypothesis is that there was a replacement, which would be consistent with the one in the fauna for an intermediate cold period, but that is a new page in our history that we will have to write with the help of the paleoclimatologists,” he concludes.
On the way in which these Homo erectus They could reach the Iberian Peninsula, scientists have no direct evidence, but they are inclined to think that they come from migrations from Eastern Europe, from the Middle East, rather than an arrival from Africa through the Strait of Gibraltar. “It is the first evidence we have in Europe in a very close way to Homo erectusbut to say that they belong to this species we need more evidence, ”he says María Martinón-Torresdirector of the Cenieh and co -author of the article.
Having this snapshot of the presence of hominids in Europe in these early stages in the same set of sites is a fairly extraordinary situation
María Martinón-Torres
– Director of the CENIH and co -author of the article
Martinón highlights the disbelief of the team by verifying that Atapuerca was providing for the third time the oldest hominid fossil in Europe. “It happened in 1994, when we discovered Homo antecessor And it was repeated in 2007, with the jaw in the Sima of the Elephant, at the Te9 level, and now it has happened again, ”summarizes. “Having this snapshot of the presence of hominids in Europe in these early stages in the same set of sites is a fairly extraordinary situation.”
A “wonderful discovery”
For José Yravedra Sainz de los TerrerosProfessor of Archeology at the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM), this study allows to face the hominins who inhabited the Sierra de Atapuerca more than a million years ago and know who manufactured the stone tools and ate the animals present at the site. “The results have great relevance, since they allow to place Homo erectus in the European continent in a chronology before one million years, ”he says in statements to the SMC.
Juan Manuel Jiménez Arenasdirector of the projector and professor at the University of Granada (UGR), remember that the other known face, which appeared in the Great Dolina, belonged to a girl between 9 and 11 years of age. “Hopefully the future appears a completely adult face in the Great Dolina or a Infant in the Sima of the Elephant and individuals can be compared in the same state of development,” he assures the SMC.
Here we are seeing the replacement of one species for another, what we see is that in Europe there have been different human species
Antonio Rosas
– Researcher at the National Museum of Natural Sciences (MNCN-CSIC)
Antonio Rosasresearcher at the National Museum of Natural Sciences (MNCN-CSIC), considers that it is another discovery of the first order of Atapuerca, which is an inexhaustible factory of results. “It is an episode that we did not know, the fact that Europe came primitive populations from Homo erectus At least 1.4 million years ago, ”he explains to Eldiario.es. In his opinion, the finding is also another sample that the process of human evolution, expansion and colonization is complex and non -linear. “Here we are seeing the replacement of one species for another, what we see is that in Europe there have been different human species.”
Rosas, who worked in Atapuerca for 21 years and was at the beginning of the excavation of the elephant’s chasm, recalls that then it was discussed whether there was a human occupation prior to 500,000 years. “Right now we are a million years ago and we have incontestable evidence,” he says. “And on top of the bones of the face, which is the key anatomical region, since what was identified as Homo antecessor It is the jaw and allows us a strictly direct comparison, ”he emphasizes. “The discovery is wonderful.”
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