Hominin Baby Tooth Found in France

TAUTAVEL, FRANCE—Agence France-Presse reports that a hominin baby tooth has been found in a cave in the Pyrénées Mountains of southern France. “The tooth likely belonged to a child aged five or six, who still had their milk teeth but had used them a fair amount,” said paleoanthropologist Tony Chevalier of the University of Perpignan. The tooth is thought to be about 560,000 years old and may have been lost by a Homo heidelbergensis child. A total of some 150 fossils of human relatives have been recovered from Arago Cave, including the remains of Tautavel Man, whose 450,000-year-old skull was discovered in 1971. Researchers are not sure whether the cave was used repeatedly as temporary shelter or as a long-term camp. To read about the discovery of Homo heidelbergensis remains in Spain, go to “A Place to Hide the Bodies.”