850,000-Year-Old Remains of Archaic Human Unearthed at Atapuerca, Spain
<div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="schema:primaryImageOfPage og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.ancient-origins.net/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/Excavation-work-at-the-Ghost-Cave-site.jpg?itok=LAbolbHs"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.ancient-origins.net/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/Excavation-work-at-the-Ghost-Cave-site.jpg?itok=LAbolbHs" width="610" height="331" alt="Excavation work at the Ghost Cave site. Source: Maria D. Guillén / IPHES-CERCA" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="schema:description content:encoded"><p>Recent excavations at the famed archaeological site of Atapuerca (Sierra de Atapuerca) in northern Spain’s Burgos province unearthed the skeletal remains of an individual who belonged to an archaic human species known as
Homo antecessor. This species walked the earth between 1.2 million and 800,000 years ago, and is the oldest hominin found in the fossil records of Western Europe.</p>
<h2>The Earliest European Hominin </h2>
<p>
Homo antecessor, which means “pioneer man” in Latin, was first discovered in the Gran Dolina cavern at
Atapuerca in 1994, or 30 years before the most recent find. It was identified as a distinct species in 1997, and for a time was considered to be the last common ancestor shared by modern humans and
Neanderthals. More recent research has suggested this is not true, however, and the current scientific consensus is that
Homo antecessor was an offshoot of the modern human evolutionary line that developed just before humans and Neanderthal’s split.</p>
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