Million Year Old Human Tooth Found
Fossil of Remote Ancestor Found in a Cave near Burgos, Spain
The discovery by paleontologists shows that humans existed in Europe long before previously believed, and the evolutionary path of mankind is becoming clear.
On Wednesday, 27 June 2007, in a cave unearthed along the path of a narrow gauge mining railroad cut into the ancient rock of the Sierra de Atapuerca during its construction a century ago, a human tooth was found. It is the oldest human fossil remain ever discovered in western Europe, and is thought to be between 1-1.2 million years old based on the geological strata in which it was found at the Sima del Elefante site east of Burgos, Spain.
Stone-age Tools and Human Fossils Linked
The molar at one time belonged to an individual of an as-yet undetermined species of hominid, probably an ancestor of Homo antecessor, who was 20-25 years old when he or she died. José María Bermúdez de Castro, co-director of the extensive digs that are being conducted in the caves of the Atapuerca, said in a news release Friday that, “We finally have the anatomical evidence of the hominids that fabricated tools more than one million years ago”. Stone tools from three different epochs of tool-making have been found in the caves, the most complete series of them at the Gran Dolina site, but no hominid remains had been found with the most ancient of these until Wednesday’s discovery.
Common Ancestor of Neanderthal Man and Homo Sapiens Found
The presence of hominids in Europe had previously been demonstrated by anatomical evidence only to five-hundred thousand years ago, although the many tools discovered pointed very convincingly at dates of over a million years. Homo antecessor is a newly designated (1997) human species that was the last common ancestor to Homo heidelbergensis (ancestor to the Neanderthal man) and to both Homo erectus, known mostly from Asian specimens, and Homo sapiens. We – Homo sapiens – did not yet exist as a distinct species at the time the owner of this tooth was walking the face of the Earth.
History of the Excavations
The archaeological history of the many caves found in the karstic (geological term meaning an area of irregular limestone formations eroded by hydrological action and characterized by fissures, underground streams, and caves) Cretaceous limestone of the Sierra de Atapuerca began in earnest 1976 when a mining engineer named Tino Torres brought the remains of humans which he had found in the Sima de los Huesos – one of the important sites in the complex - to Emiliano Aguirre, a Spanish anthropologist. In 1950 the area had been opened up to quarrying and some remains were found; in 1964 professor M. Jordá began preliminary excavations there, but this work stopped a short time later.
It was under the direction of Aguirre, in 1980, that the excavations that have continued to the present began, and only in 1984 that the systematic survey in the Sima de los Huesos was undertaken. In 1990, Aguirre retired and his work is continuing under the co-direction of Bermúdez, Eudald Carbonell, and Juan Luis Arsuaga.
In 1992 several skulls were found in the Sima de los Huesos, among them the very well-preserved Skull Number 5 from an individual of Homo heidelbergensis, together with remains from about 30 other individuals of all ages and sexes. In 1994 the remains of what would later be classified as Homo antecessor were found. It is known now that this was a truly human species that had the power of abstract and symbolic thought, and who considered the mysteries of existence. They practiced ritual cannibalism, and left otherwise unused funerary artifacts with their dead.
References:
- Bischoff, J. L., J. A. Patrick, L. Léon, J. L. Arsuaga, J. J. Bahain and T. Bullen. 1997. Geology and preliminary dating of the hominid-bearing sedimentary fill of the Sima de los Huesos Chamber, Cueva Mayor of the Sierra de Atapuerca, Burgos, Spain. Journal of Human Evolution 33: 129-154.
- Carbonell, Eudald, Montse Estaban, Aurora Martin, Marina Nájera, Marina Mosquera, Xosé Pedro Rodríguiz, Andreu Ollé, Robert Sala, Josep Maria Vergés. 1998. The Pleistocene site of Gran Dolina, Sierra de Atapuerca, Spain: a history of the archaeological investigations. Journal of Human Evolution 37:313-324.
- Parés, Josep M. and Alfredo Pérez-Gonzalez. 1995. Paleomagnetic Age for Hominid Fossils at Atapuerca Archaeological Site, Spain. Science 269:830-832.
- News release of 29 June 2007 (AFP) announcing discovery of molar.
