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A fragment of a face of a human ancestor is the oldest in Western EuropeAccording to the results of a new study published this week.
The incomplete skull, a section of the bone of the left cheek and the upper jaw, was found in northern Spain in 2022 and was published in the Nature of the newspaper On Wednesday.
Archaeologists believe The fossil has between 1.1 million and 1.4 million years.
Researchers expect the discovery to provide some new ideas about the first inhabitants of Western Europe during the early season of the Pleistocene. Much of the information available from Western Europe is limited to the Iberian Peninsula.
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This photo provided by the Catalan Institute of Human Paleoecology and Social Evolution in March 2025 shows archaeological excavation works at the Sima del Elefante site in Sierra de Atapuercer, Burgos, Spain, where a fossil of a hominine was found between 1.1 million and 1.4 million years. (Maria D. Guillén/Iphes-Cerca through AP)
Although a collection of older fossils of the first human ancestors was previously found in the country of Georgia, the Spanish fossil is the first evidence that clearly shows the human ancestors “were taking excursions to Europe” at that time, Rick Potts, director of the Smithsonian Human Origins program, told The Associated Press.
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Even so, there is no evidence that the first arrivals stayed there, Potts said, noting that they may have ventured in other places and then extinguished.
This image provided by the Catalan Institute of Human Paleoecology and Social Evolution in March 2025 shows a fossil of the left middle face of a hominine, to the right, between 1.1 million and 1.4 million years, recovered from the Sima site of the elephant in Sierra de Atapuerc, Burgos, Spain and a reflected simulation of the other part. (Maria D. Guillén/Iphes-Cerca, Elena Santos/Cenieh via Ap)
The partial skull has similarities with Homo Erectus, but there are also some anatomical differences, said the co -author of the study, Rosa Huguet, an archaeologist of the Catalan Institute of Human Paleoecology and social evolution in Tarragona, Spain.
This photo provided by the Catalan Institute of Human Paleoecology and Social Evolution in March 2025, shows Dr. Rosa Huguet, an IPhes-Cerca researcher and professor at the Rovira I University I Virgili, with the fossil of a hominine between 1.1 million and 1.4 million years, found in an archaeological site in Spain. (Maria D. Guillén/Iphes-Cerca through AP)
Homo Erectus emerged about 2 million years ago and moved from Africa to regions of Asia and Europe, and the last people died about 100,000 years ago, Potts said.
This image provided by the Catalan Institute of Human Paleoecology and Social Evolution in March 2025 shows a fossil of the left middle face of a hominino between 1.1 million and 1.4 million years recovered from the Sima del Elefante site in Sierra de Atapuerca, Burgos, Spain. (Maria D. Guillén/Iphes-Cerca through AP)
It can be a challenge to identify which group of early humans to find a fossil belongs if there is only one fragment compared to many bones that show a variety of characteristics, said Christopology of the University of Zurich Christoph Zollikofer, which did not participate in the study.
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The same Cuevas complex in the mountains of Atapuerca of Spain, where it was found that the new fossil also produced other significant clues to the ancient human past. Researchers who work in the region have also found more recent fossils of Neanderthals and Homo Sapiens early.
Associated Press contributed to this report.
