By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD
Excavations in a cave in the mountains of northern Spain have
uncovered the oldest known remains of human ancestors in Western
Europe, scientists reported Wednesday.
The fossils of a lower jaw and teeth, more than 1.1 million years old,
were found in sediments along with stone tools and animal bones that
appeared to have been butchered. The remains have been attributed to
the previously known species Homo antecessor, a possible ancestor of
Neanderthals and modern humans.
The discovery is described in the current issue of the journal Nature
by a team of Spanish and American scientists led by Eudald Carbonell
of the Catalan Institute of Human Paleontology and Social Evolution at
Tarragona, Spain.
The scientists, noting that the earliest presence of human ancestors
in Europe is "one of the most debated topics in paleoanthropology,"
said the site of Sima del Elefante in the Atapuerca Mountains held the
"oldest, most accurately dated record" of both fossils and artifacts
of human occupation in Western Europe.
Other sites on the continent have yielded artifacts of a roughly
comparable age, but no fossil bones. Until now, the earliest remains
of Homo antecessor, found in the same mountains, were 800,000 years
old. Far to the east, in the republic of Georgia, recent fossil
discoveries show that early Homo had moved into parts of Eurasia from
Africa about 1.9 million years ago.
"It's great to have confirmation that there was early human
penetration in Western Europe this early," said Ian Tattersall, a
paleonanthropologist at the American Museum of Natural History in
Manhattan, who was not involved in the research.
Dr. Tattersall said in an interview that it was too soon to tell where
these cave occupants "fit in the larger scale" of early human
settlement in Europe. It is not yet clear, for example, how or if this
species was ancestral to later European populations, he said.
Dr. Carbonell's group conceded that the identification of the fossils
as Homo antecessor was provisional. But those living in the cave had
been busy making crude tools from chert. A few pieces survived, along
with knapping flakes. The animal bones showed cut marks and other
signs of processing, including fractures for extracting marrow.
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