ATAPUERCA, SPAIN—Facial bones from the earliest human ancestor ever to walk in western Europe were found in a cave in northern Spain, according to a CNN report. In 2022, archaeologists from the Atapuerca Project found several bone fragments of an extinct human species at the Sima del Enfante cave site in the Atapuerca Mountains. The team spent the past few years meticulously reconstructing the pieces until they realized they formed the left side of the face of an adult human, nicknamed “Pink,” who lived between 1.2 and 1.4 million years ago. The researchers initially believed that the bones may have belonged to a member of the Homo antecessor species, which was known to roam the area around 850,000 years ago. Further analysis determined, however, that the skeletal fragments belonged to an even more primitive hominin species that they have tentatively classified as Homo affinis erectus, a nod to the skull characteristics that Pink shares with Homo erectus. Homo erectus fossils are well-known in Asia and Africa but their remains have never been conclusively found in Europe. “Homo antecessor had a very modern-like face, very similar to the face we[,] our species, Homo sapiens, have, which is vertical and flat,” said María Martinón-Torres, lead researcher of the Atapuerca Project. “However, this new hominin is different. It has a much more projecting forward face, which makes it similar to other Homo erectus specimens.” Excavations at the site also uncovered stone tools and animal bones bearing cutmarks, indicating that this ancient hominin species had the lithic technology and knowledge to process animal carcasses. The researchers noted that this new discovery represents a major step toward further understanding the origins of human settlement in Europe. Read the original scholarly article about this research in Nature. To read about another study of hominin remains found in the Atapuerca Mountains, go to "Neanderthal Hearing."
