Oldest European human fossil possibly found in Spain
A jawbone fragment discovered in northern Spain last month could be the oldest known fossil of a human ancestor found to date in Europe, Spanish palaeontologists said.
The researchers said the fossil found at an archaeological site on June 30 in northern Spain's Atapuerca mountain range is around 1.4 million years old.
Until now, the oldest hominid fossil found in Europe was a jawbone found at the same site in 2007 which was determined to be 1.2 million years old.
Researchers will now have to "complete" their first estimate for the age of the jawbone fragment using scientific dating techniques, palaeoanthropologist Jose-Maria Bermudez de Castro, the co-director of the Atapuerca research project, said during a news conference.
But since the jawbone fragment was found some two metres below the layer of earth where the jawbone in 2007 was found, "it is logical and reasonable to think it is older," he added.
Scientists have so far been unable to determine with certainty which species the jawbone discovered in 2007 belonged to.
The fossil could correspond to the species called Homo antecessor, discovered in the 1990s.
The Atapuerca Foundation which runs the archaeological site said in a statement that is "very likely" that the jawbone fragment "belongs to one of the first populations that colonised Europe".
