Skeletal remains of the oldest 'European' in history discovered by researchers

Researchers might have discovered the oldest European in history, in Atapuerca, in the northeast of Spain. At the very end of June, researchers found fragments of the face of a human-like creature who lived in Europe more than a million years ago. A dating must be carried out to confirm its exact age.

Old record broken

This potentially historic discovery seems to confirm what researchers have been suspecting for years. Spanish outlet El Pais said:

It's a surprise because we didn't have such irrefutable evidence until now of the presence of human beings on the European continent at that time.

In a statement, the researchers describe their find as 'a face fragment of a human being estimated to be around 1.4 million years old'. As per DailyMail, in 2007, a hominid jawbone dated to be 1.2 million years old was discovered by a student from the National Center for Investigation of Human Evolution. That record might be broken by this recent discovery in Spain.

Dates still needed

The researchers, however, still need to carry out several analyses to find out the dates during which the remains existed. Other tests will be executed to confirm this hypothesis and determine which species this hominid came from.

During a conference, José Maria Bermudez de Castro, the co-director of the Atapuerca site declared:

This discovery will probably help us to learn more about the species that populated the European continent.

By way of comparison, the age of Lucy (Australopithecus named after a Beatles title) is estimated to be 3.18 million years!

This article is translated from Gentside FR.

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