The age of the fossil, which was found on 30 June 2022 during excavations in Spain and was determined to be a human jawbone, was also determined. According to the findings, the owner of the bone lived 1.4 million years ago. In addition, the fossil in question went down in evolutionary history as the oldest human fossil ever discovered in Europe.
The human jawbone fossil found on June 30 in the Arapuerca Mountains, Spain, has survived to this day. The oldest human fossil ever found on the European continent it happened.
Jose-Maria Bermudez de Castro, one of the leaders of the team conducting the research, on the new jawbone they found. “dating” work continues stated. During the dating studies, many methods, especially carbon testing, are used to confirm the age of the fossils found.
The final results will be announced after 6 to 8 months, and if confirmed by scientific methods, the discovery will become historical:
The jawbone of a person who lived 1.4 million years ago @Atapuerca Foundation
Due to the nature of scientific research, every piece of information is tested with different tests before it is accepted for certainty. If a 1.4-million-year-old fossil is indeed determined to be of this age, the researchers say it would be a historic discovery.
The mandible is owned by someone of the same species as us, not a Homo sapiense:
A wax statue representing the first Homo sapiens to land in present-day England. @National History Museum, London
As you know, we are a species called Homo (human) sapiens (intelligent), that is, “intelligent human”, and for tens of thousands of years, no other human species has lived on earth except us. The earliest evidence for our species is simply While dating back 200 thousand years The jawbone fossil found is 1.2 million years older than even the oldest evidence of us.
It is thought that 21 different human species have been identified on earth so far. Although some studies suggest that the number is 14, we know that the jawbone in question does not belong to a Homo sapiens. The oldest European human fossil before the fossil said to be 1.4 million years old in 2007 It was discovered and dated to 1.2 million years ago, but which human species this fossil belongs to has still not been determined.
The discovery was made in Spain. AtapuercaIt has been on the UNESCO World Heritage list since 2000, and thousands of prehistoric fossils are said to be waiting to be discovered.