Fossilized bone fragments discovered in a cave in northern Spain in 2022 revealed a formerly unknown human population living more than 1.1 million years ago, according to a new study published by the cnn.com.

The fossils were found at the Sima del Elefante site in the Atapuerca mountains, consisting of a skull part of the left side of an adult man’s face. Bones are the first fossils of man to be found in Western Europe so far.

However, it was not immediately obvious what kind of prehistoric man had found the team and the study describing the fossils published Wednesday in Nature magazine, does not give a definitive answer.

The group suspects the samples belonged to the Homo erectus, A kind of fossils found in Africa and Asia, but whose remains have never been found in Europe.

“It’s a little bold, but we don’t exclude the possibility of being different,” he said Maria Martin-ToronsDirector of Cenieh, the National Human Development Center of Spain, at a press conference on Tuesday.

Mysterious relatives of early people

The mountainous area of ​​Spain, where fossils were found, was an important place for Paleoanthropology.

In the mid -1990s, scientists recognized an early human relative known as Homo Antecessor of about 80 fossils revealed to a location near the Sima del Elefante called Gran dolina. These bones are about 850,000 years old.

However, Torres said that the morphology of the fossil of the skull found in 2022 did not fit the characteristics of the Homo AnteCessor. This archaic man had been considered to be the oldest known resident of Western Europe before Neanderthalwhich appeared in Epirus about 400,000 years ago.

“THE Homo Antecessor had a very modern person, very similar to the person who has our kind of; the Homo Sapiens, more level. However this new discovery is different »he said.

“It has a much more prominent front look … that makes it similar to other homo erectus samples”, added.

The team also reviewed a partial lower bone of the jaw found in 2007 in Sima del Elefante. The authors of the study now believe that it belonged to the same population of prehistoric people.

However, only with small parts of the face, it was impossible to identify the species with certainty. Therefore, the group claims that the fossil is closely related to Homo Affinis erectusbut it is a little different.

“We still have to excavate the lowest levels of Sima del Elefante. So who knows? We may have more surprises »Torres said.

“I think the basic finding is that we are documenting for the first time a population of people we didn’t know we had in Europe.”

Combination of techniques

THE Chris Stringerlead researcher in human evolution at the London Natural History Museum, said the discovery was one “Very important finding”.

“The shape of the face is different from that of the predecessor (and H. Sapiens) in features such as the least protruding nose and the least sensitive cheekbones, and so it looks more like some fossils of the rectum,” said Stringer, who was not involved in an email survey.

“But I believe that researchers are right that relates the findings from the Elefante with the species Homo erectus. It is very incomplete for any definitive conclusion. “

Reconstruction of the fragmented fossil of the face required a combination of traditional techniques, such as the analysis and comparison of fossils with visual inspection, with advanced imaging and three -dimensional analysis, the study said. The researchers did not directly dating the fossils, but, based on three different ways of dating the mattress in which the fossils were embedded, calculated that they were between 1.4 and 1.1 million years old.

The group also discovered bones of animals with signs of cutting and stone tools used to slaughter animals. The population would have lived in a forest environment with wet meadows, which would be rich in prey, the study said.