A New Face in the European Fossil Record: What a Spanish Cave Tells Us About Early Human Ancestors

Deep in the Atapuerca Mountains of northern Spain, a cave has yielded a fragmentary face that could change the way anthropologists understand the early human occupation of Europe. Excavations at Sima del Elefante have produced a partial left upper jaw and cheekbone, with researchers estimating the fossil to be between 1.4 million and 1.1 million years old.

Specimen ATE7-1. Frontal view (a), lateral view (b) and occlusal view (c) of specimen ATE7-1 obtained at level TE7. Scale bars, 3 cm.

The discovery, published in Nature¹, suggests that an ancient Homo population—previously unknown—roamed Western Europe long before Homo antecessor, a species found at the nearby Gran Dolina site that lived roughly 900,000 years ago.

“This discovery introduces a new actor in the story of human evolution in Europe,” says Rosa Huguet of the Catalan Institute of Human Paleoecology and Social Evolution.

Unlike the more recent H. antecessor, whose vertical, flat cheekbones resemble those of modern humans, the individual from Sima del Elefante displays features that link it more closely to Homo erectus populations that once lived in Southwest Asia. But it remains unclear whether the fossil belongs to H. erectus or represents an entirely distinct species.