Updated

Updated · Sci.News · Jul 30

Spain Unearths 224,000-Year-Old Homo Skull Fragment, First Human Fossil at Ruidera

Updated

Updated · Sci.News · Jul 30

Spain Unearths 224,000-Year-Old Homo Skull Fragment, First Human Fossil at Ruidera

Q: If archaic humans survived longer in Iberia than expected, how many different human groups overlapped in Ice Age Europe?

At least two, and likely more, human groups overlapped in Ice Age Europe. The new Ruidera skull fragment from Spain, dated to about 224,000 years ago, suggests that an archaic Homo population with older-looking traits was still present in Iberia later than many researchers expected. By that point in Europe, populations on the Neanderthal lineage were already established in many regions, so the simplest reading is that at least two distinct human groups were overlapping in time: archaic Middle Pleistocene Homo in parts of Iberia and more derived pre-Neanderthal or Neanderthal-line populations elsewhere. Researchers are careful not to put a precise number on it because RVH-1 is only a partial parietal bone and was classified broadly as Homo sp. The wider evidence from Middle Pleistocene Europe points to a patchwork rather than a single continent-wide population. Fossils from sites such as Ceprano, Arago, Sima de los Huesos, Payre and Petralona have long shown substantial variation, which is why the period is often called the “muddle in the middle.” So the best current answer is not one exact count but a minimum: two overlapping groups are strongly implied, and the real number may have been several regionally distinct populations exchanging genes, fragmenting, and rejoining across Europe during glacial cycles. That is the broader significance of the Spanish find: it strengthens the case that human evolution in Europe was a network of contemporaries, not a straight line.

3 articles · Updated · Sci.News · Jul 30

RVH-1, a fossilized parietal bone dated to as much as 224,000 years old, was recovered from rock breccia at Ruidera in central Spain—the first human fossil ever found at the site.
Uranium-series dating and optically stimulated luminescence placed the fossil-bearing layer in the Middle Pleistocene, giving researchers a new data point on humans living in Europe hundreds of thousands of years ago.
Anatomically, the fragment is unusually thick and sharply angled at the temporal line, traits that resemble other archaic European crania such as Ceprano in Italy and Caune de l'Arago in France.
Researchers stopped short of assigning a species from a single partial bone, classifying it as Homo sp. while saying the find suggests unexpectedly archaic populations persisted in Iberia relatively late in the Middle Pleistocene.
The Journal of Human Evolution study argues the discovery strengthens evidence that European human evolution was complex, with distinct populations coexisting rather than following a linear path.