A fossil jawbone discovered in Spain may challenge what we know about the migration of Homo sapiens from Africa to Europe. The Banyoles mandible, found in a quarry near the town of Banyoles, Spain in 1889, was thought to be a Neanderthal fossil. However, new evidence suggests that it may be from an early Homo sapiens individual.
The mandible had not previously been considered in discussions about Homo sapiens in Europe because it lacked the bony chin feature of our species. Moreover, most researchers believed it to be too old to represent Homo sapiens, with an estimated age of between 780,000 and 130,000 years old.
However, based on recent modern uranium-series and electron spin resonance dating, researchers now believe the Banyoles mandible is between 45,000 and 66,000 years old.
This younger estimate overlaps with the early H. sapiens fossils from Eastern Europe.
Working with Spanish paleoanthropologists and archaeologists, researchers took another look at what species the fossil might represent.
Using CT scanning to virtually reconstruct damaged or missing portions of the mandible, they generated a 3D model of the complete fossil, then studied its overall shape and distinctive anatomical features, comparing it to H. sapiens, Neandertals and other earlier human species.
The new conclusion suggests that the fossil is between 45,000 and 66,000 years old. The findings of this study suggest that early Homo sapiens individuals could have lived in Europe before it was thought that they did, and it could reveal insights into present-day biological, behavioral, and cultural diversity.
Understanding the migration of Homo sapiens out of Africa and their interactions with other human lineages such as Neanderthals and Denisovans is one of the most active areas of research in human evolutionary studies.
By reclassifying the Banyoles mandible, researchers have added to the mystery of who these early humans were and how they interacted with other human lineages.
Source: The Conversation
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