Cave discovery reveals previously unknown prehistoric human population in Europe

AccuWeather ^ | March 13, 2025 | Katie Hunt, CNN

[SunkenCiv]

Fossilized bone fragments unearthed in a cave in northern Spain in 2022 have revealed a previously unknown human population that lived more than 1.1 million years ago, according to new research.

Found at the Sima del Elefante site in the Atapuerca Mountains, the fossils make up a partial skull comprised of the left side of the face of an adult hominin. The mineralized bones are the earliest human fossil remains found so far in Western Europe.

However, it wasn't immediately obvious which species of prehistoric human the team had found, and the study describing the fossils, published Wednesday in the journal Nature, doesn't put forward a definitive answer.

The team suspects the specimens belonged to Homo erectus, a species well-known from fossils found in Africa and Asia but whose remains have never been conclusively found in Europe.

[SunkenCiv]

• Ancient footprints show Neanderthals may have been taller than thought [09/28/2019]
• Neanderthal-like features in 450,000-year-old fossil teeth from the Italian Peninsula [10/13/2018]
• A human fossil species in western Europe could be close to a million years old [06/07/2018]
• Iberia's Neolithic Farmers Linked to Modern-Day Basques [09/08/2015]
• Study reveals human body has gone through four stages of evolution [09/04/2015]
• Archaeologists Continue Searching for "First Humans" in Europe at Atapuerca Site in Spain [07/27/2013]
• Scientists are accused of distorting theory of human evolution by misdating bones [06/13/2012]
• 500,000 year old cranium found at Atapuerca, Burgos [08/01/2010]
• The first Europeans were cannibals, say Spanish archaeologists [06/26/2009]
• What is the secret of the Pit of Bones? [11/26/2007]
• Fragments of another skull unearthed at the Atapuerca site [10/16/2007]
• 'First west Europe tooth' (million-year-old human tooth) found in Spain [06/30/2007]
• Mandible, Sierra de Atapuerca, Spain, Homo Antecessor, 800K years old [06/24/2005]
• Disaster May Have Killed Ancients [05/19/2004]
• 21st Century New York Meets Neanderthal Male [01/20/2003]
• A Rebuilt Neanderthal [12/31/2002]
• Sabre-tooths and Hominids [11/22/2002]

[SunkenCiv]

Reconstructing the fragmented face fossil required combining traditional techniques, such as analyzing and comparing the fossils by visual inspection, with advanced imaging and 3D analysis, the study said. The researchers did not directly date the fossils but, based on three different ways of dating the layer of sediment in which the fossils embedded, they estimated they were between 1.4 million and 1.1 million years old.

CNN / AccuWeather

[SunkenCiv]

[Jamestown1630]

A strange excitement comes over me, when we discover that ‘The Great God Science’ hasn’t figured everything out, yet...

[Magnum44]

[Bon of Babble]

You can be sure the media will portray them as looking like this:

[GenXPolymath]

“A strange excitement comes over me, when we discover that ‘The Great God Science’ hasn’t figured everything out, yet”

You mean the irrefutable proof of multiple human species having walked and shared this planet over millions of years, which cements the evolutionary biology process. Yeah it makes me a PhD Geoscientist all warm and fuzzy too. It’s called biostratigraphy. The proper terms are first appearance and last appearance in the fossil record.

[Jamestown1630]

Thanks for the science talk.

[Honorary Serb]

They lived in caves!

[dfwgator]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCV6paTXyCU

[A_perfect_lady]

Ancestors of the Basque! I mean, maybe.

[Jamestown1630]

I wonder how long it took the Africans who migrated North, to lose their melanin and look white...

[DannyTN]

[Cronos]

Actually the Eurasian population migrated out of Africa 40k years ago.

They were dark skinned like today’s Australian Aborigines.

But then agriculture was discovered. Now agriculture gave a lot of food but not enough vitamin D that we need. It didn’t matter in Iraq, but as those populations migrated to the less sunny regions and reduced the meat in their diets, the darker skinned ones weakened and died.

The lack of melanine to become pale skinned happened in only a few dozen generations or less. You can see this in Sardinians who are among the most ancient Europeans and have mostly neolithic Iranian farmer ancestry.

And among Inuit who are quite a lot swarthier than Swedes as Inuit are nearly pure meat eaters who love them livers filled with vitamin D

[SunkenCiv]

Strange excitement, that checks out.

[Az Joe]

I believe it was Homo Viagras that ultimately won the evolutionary competition.

[SunkenCiv]

Yeah, they were everywhere, including a recently discovered cave near Viagra Falls.

[Red Badger]

They lived in caves!

Well yeah, The Homeowners Association hadn't been invented yet!............

[SunkenCiv]

That’s why they could paint all over the walls in those caves, no bylaws or HOA.

[Red Badger]

We live across the street from a new HOA Ruled subdivision.

I pity those people.....................