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Greece’s Petralona Cave Skull May Date Back 500,000 Years, New Study Suggests
Greek Reporter ^ | August 20, 2025 | Nisha Zahid

Posted on 08/20/2025 5:05:47 PM PDT by nickcarraway

A new study has provided the clearest picture yet of one of Europe’s most debated fossils — a nearly complete human skull discovered in Petralona Cave, northern Greece. The fossil, first unearthed in 1960, has long challenged scientists with questions about both its identity and its age.

A skull unlike Neanderthals or modern humans

The Petralona skull belongs to the Homo genus but stands apart from known groups. It shows marked differences from Neanderthals and modern humans, leaving researchers uncertain about where it fits in the evolutionary record.

Its age has also been a source of dispute for decades, with earlier estimates ranging widely from 170,000 to 700,000 years.

Now, a research team from the Institut de Paléontologie Humaine has used uranium-series (U-series) dating to narrow down the timeline. Their findings, published in the Journal of Human Evolution, indicate a minimum age of 286,000 years.

How U-series dating works inside caves

U-series dating works by measuring how uranium isotopes decay into thorium. In cave environments, water seeping through soil carries uranium but leaves thorium behind. When the moisture evaporates, it forms calcite crusts rich in uranium but free of thorium.

Grecian Delight supports Greece

From that moment, the uranium begins to break down at a steady rate, creating a closed system that can be measured with precision.

Samples taken from the skull and cave formations

Researchers sampled calcite from several areas of the cave, including the coating on the skull itself, nearby stalagmites, and formations in chambers and passages. The calcite crust on the cranium yielded a minimum age of 286,000 ± 9,000 years.

However, the team noted that this date only reflects when the skull was first exposed to moisture and began collecting deposits. If it had remained dry or covered beforehand, the fossil could be older.

Wider cave dating sets upper and lower limits

To test broader limits, researchers also dated cave formations. A stalagmitic veil in the Mausoleum chamber showed an age of 510,000 ± 29,000 years at the surface and more than 650,000 years inside, confirming that the cave was well established before the skull’s coating began.

In the Dardanelles Passage, no stalagmitic floor was older than 410,000 years, while a younger layer dated to about 228,000 years.

What the findings reveal about human evolution

These findings produced two possible age ranges. If the cranium was once cemented to the cave wall, its age is between 539,000 and 277,000 years. If not, deposition is estimated between 410,000 and 277,000 years.

The study concludes that the Petralona hominin belonged to a separate and more primitive group than Homo sapiens or Neanderthals.

The results also support the idea that such populations coexisted with early Neanderthals in Europe during the Middle Pleistocene, offering new insight into the continent’s complex evolutionary past.


TOPICS: History
KEYWORDS: crevo; fauxiantroll; fauxiantrolls; godsgravesglyphs; greece; lucy; paleolithic; paleontology; petralonacave; piltdownman; sciencehatingtrolls; storkzilla; youngearthdelusion; youngearthdelusions
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1 posted on 08/20/2025 5:05:47 PM PDT by nickcarraway
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To: nickcarraway

“The calcite crust on the cranium yielded a minimum age” — Decades ago, I used that technique on new girlfriends when they told me how old they were. I caught more than a few lying.


2 posted on 08/20/2025 5:18:24 PM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom
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To: nickcarraway

Pure unadulterated crap.


3 posted on 08/20/2025 5:19:37 PM PDT by Fungi
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To: nickcarraway

This is substantial...


4 posted on 08/20/2025 5:22:12 PM PDT by Openurmind (AI - An Illusion for Aptitude Intrusion to Alter Intellect. )
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To: nickcarraway

“It shows marked differences from Neanderthals and modern humans, leaving researchers uncertain about where it fits in the evolutionary record.”

__________

Evolutionary record, hahaha. That’s what happens when you make up stories to fit a narrative.


5 posted on 08/20/2025 5:23:58 PM PDT by jacknhoo (Luke 12:51; Think ye, that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, no; but separation.)
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To: StayAt HomeMother; Ernest_at_the_Beach; 1ofmanyfree; 21twelve; 24Karet; 2ndDivisionVet; 31R1O; ...

6 posted on 08/20/2025 5:24:15 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (NeverTrumpin' -- it's not just for DNC shills anymore -- oh, wait, yeah it is.)
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To: Fungi

Why?


7 posted on 08/20/2025 5:30:29 PM PDT by Jamestown1630 ("A Republic, if you can keep it.")
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To: nickcarraway
Waiting for a facial reconstruction. I bet he looks like Yogi Berra.



8 posted on 08/20/2025 5:49:26 PM PDT by Candor7 (Ask not for whom the Trump Trolls,He trolls for thee!<img src="" width=500</img><a href="">tag</a>) )
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To: nickcarraway

In before the earth is only 6,000 years old crowd


9 posted on 08/20/2025 6:36:20 PM PDT by Hyman Roth
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To: SunkenCiv
Yorick?


10 posted on 08/20/2025 6:37:14 PM PDT by Larry Lucido
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To: nickcarraway
"the Homo genus"


11 posted on 08/20/2025 6:56:18 PM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is opinion or satire. Or both.)
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To: Larry Lucido

[singing] New Yorick New Yorick!


12 posted on 08/20/2025 7:14:31 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (NeverTrumpin' -- it's not just for DNC shills anymore -- oh, wait, yeah it is.)
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To: SunkenCiv

Does it look like a sock monkey?


13 posted on 08/20/2025 7:31:12 PM PDT by BFW (loss of signal)
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To: Fungi
Pure unadulterated crap.

It's science. Pay attention, you might learn something.

14 posted on 08/20/2025 7:32:19 PM PDT by rexthecat
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To: BFW

Wait a minute, are you trying mock Sunky?


15 posted on 08/20/2025 8:36:42 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (NeverTrumpin' -- it's not just for DNC shills anymore -- oh, wait, yeah it is.)
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To: nickcarraway

16 posted on 08/21/2025 5:53:16 AM PDT by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegals are put up in 5 Star hotels....................)
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To: Red Badger

Helen Thomas never looked better.


17 posted on 08/21/2025 5:54:43 AM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: BFW

See #16......It actually looks more ‘monkey-ish’..............


18 posted on 08/21/2025 5:55:03 AM PDT by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegals are put up in 5 Star hotels....................)
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To: dfwgator

It would be cool to get some DNA...................


19 posted on 08/21/2025 5:55:59 AM PDT by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegals are put up in 5 Star hotels....................)
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To: nickcarraway

How U-series dating works inside caves
U-series dating works by measuring how uranium isotopes decay into thorium. In cave environments, water seeping through soil carries uranium but leaves thorium behind. When the moisture evaporates, it forms calcite crusts rich in uranium but free of thorium.


This method seems to suggest that a basic assumption is that the rate of water dripping into the cave remained constant over the entire 286,000 year period. Seems a bit of a stretch to say the least.


20 posted on 08/21/2025 6:05:39 AM PDT by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now its your turn)
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