Discovering a partial face fossil belongs to the oldest human premium in Western Europe
The fragment of the face of the human ancestor is the oldest in Western EuropeAccording to the results of a new study published this week.
Incomplete skull – part of the left cheeks and upper jaw bone – was found in northern Spain in 2022 and published in Nature magazine on Wednesday.
Archaeologists believe Fossil is between 1.1 million and 1.4 million years.
Researchers hope that the discovery will provide some new insights into the first residents of Western Europe during the early Pleistocene era. Much of the information available from Western Europe is limited to the Iberian Peninsula.
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This photograph provided in March 2025 by the Catalan Institute of Human Paleoecology and Social Evolution is depicted by archeological work on excavation at Sima del Elefante in Sierra de Atapuerc, Burgos, Spain, where Fossil of Hominin was found between 1.1 million and 1.4 million years. (Maria D. Guillén/Iphes-Cerca via AP)
While the collection of older fossils of early human ancestors was previously found in the country of Georgia, Spanish Fossil is the first evidence that obviously shows that human ancestors “took trips to Europe at the time,” said Rick Potts, Director of the Smithsonian’s Human Origins Program, for Associated Press.
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Still, there is no evidence that the earliest arrivals remained there for a long time, Potts said, noting that they may have embarked on other places and then extinct.
This picture provided by the Catalan Institute of Human Paleocology and Social Evolution in March 2025, shows the fossil of the left middle of Hominin, to the right, between 1.1 million and 1.4 million years, recovered from Sima del Elefante in Sierra de Atapuerc, Burgos, Spain and mirror simulations. (Maria D. Guillén/Iphes-Cerca, Elena Santos/Cenieh by AP)
Partial skull has similarities to Homo erectus, but there are also some anatomical differences, said the co -author of Study Rosa Huguet, an archeologist at the Catalan Institute of Human Paleocology and Social Evolution in Tarragoni, Spain.
This photo provided by the Catalan Institute of Human Paleocology and Social Evolution in March 2025, is depicts Dr. Rosa Huguet, researcher IPHES-CERCA and professor at Rovir and Virgili University, with Hominin’s fossil between 1.1 million and 1.4 million years, found in an archeological place in Spain. (Maria D. Guillén/Iphes-Cerca via AP)
Homo erectus originated about 2 million years ago and moved from Africa to the regions of Asia and Europe, and the last individuals died about 100,000 years ago, Potts said.
This picture provided by the Catalan Institute of Human Paleocology and Social Evolution in March 2025, shows the fossil of the left middle of Hominin between 1.1 million and 1.4 million years recovered from Sima del Elefante in Sierra de Atapuerca, Burgos, Spain. (Maria D. Guillén/Iphes-Cerca via AP)
It can be challenging to identify which group of early people the fossil finding belongs if there is only one fragment opposite to many costumes showing a number of features, said the University of Zurich Paleanthropologist Christoph Zolkofer, which was not involved in the studio.
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The same cave complex in the Spanish mountains of Atapuerca, where a new fossil was found, also gave other significant traces of an ancient human past. Researchers working in the region have also found newer fossils of Neanderthals and early Homo sapiens.
Associated Press contributed to this report.
