In 2022, researchers discovered fragments of the left side of a human face in the Sima del Elefante cave in northern Spain. Nicknamed Pink, the fossil dates back between 1.1 and 1.4 million years, marking the oldest known evidence of hominins in Western Europe, according to The Guardian. The fossil, found among about 6,000 remains, includes a partial left upper jaw, cheekbone, and some teeth, but its species cannot be conclusively identified, reported NBC News.
Within the same sedimentary level as Pink, researchers found quartz and flint tools alongside animal bones bearing cut marks from butchering, suggesting these early ancestors butchered animals for meat. The name Pink is a tribute to Pink Floyd's album The Dark Side of the Moon, coinciding with the album's fiftieth anniversary, and also alludes to the first name of excavation leader Rosa Huguet.
Researchers tentatively suggest that Pink is likely related to the human ancestor Homo erectus but have provisionally attributed the fossil to Homo affinis erectus. “This discovery introduces a new actor in the story of human evolution in Europe,” said Rosa Huguet, archaeologist and excavation leader, according to Gizmodo.
The skeletal remains do not match those of Homo antecessor, which was previously thought to be the first human species to reach this part of Eurasia. Homo antecessor had modern body proportions and facial anatomy, with a face similar to that of Homo sapiens but an archaic forehead. In contrast, the team found that Pink lacked bony support for the nose, indicating a very flat nose.
“This is another step towards understanding the first Europeans,” said Dr. José María Bermúdez de Castro, co-director of the Atapuerca Project. “We now know that this first species had an appearance reminiscent of the specimens included by many in Homo erectus. However, the remains from the Sima del Elefante site have a very particular combination of features. More fossils should be found in other contemporary sites to reach a more robust conclusion about the identity of this species,” he added.
The discovery of the fossil ATE7-1 could help bridge a gap in evolutionary gap between the oldest known human ancestor fossils found in Europe, which are roughly 1.8 million years old from Dmanisi, Georgia, and Homo antecessor, which dates back roughly 900,000 years. The researchers say the Sima del Elefante species might have survived until shortly after the arrival of Homo antecessor.
The fossil was found about six feet deeper than a previous human jawbone discovered at the same site in 2007, which was dated to around 1.2 million years old but remained unclassified, reported NBC News.
“We're going to keep excavating. We may have more surprises,” said Martinón-Torres. The team has been working on reconstructing the fragments and analyzing the fossil. They used digital scanning to create a virtual 3-D version of the entire ancient midface.
“Now we know that before Homo antecessor, there was another species in Western Europe that we didn't know about,” said Huguet.
The article was written with the assistance of a news analysis system.
