A novel archaic human skull discovered in a cave in Portugal could give incredible brainstorm into where the Neanderthals , our stockier ancient cousins , came from . It is thought thatthe discoverycould help oneself explain which other species of archaic human evolved intoHomo neanderthalensiswhen they appeared in Europe some half a million yr ago .
Our ancestors were not the first mintage of human to transmigrate out of Africa and into Asia and Europe . It is think that multiple other primitive humans made the journey , includingHomo ergastersome 2 million years ago andHomo heidelbergensis , whose ancestors that continue in Africa finally gave rise to our species .
But therehas been a debateamong paleoanthropologists as to which of these specie eventually give boost to Neanderthals , which came to predominate much of Eurasia before we make it on the scene around 40,000 years ago . This late find of an archaic human cranium in Portugal , published in theProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , may help pour forth some light on this evolutionary anomaly .
practical reconstruction of the skull find in Portugal . Javier Trueba
It seems to show a motley of features never before seen in a fossil human , with some of them distinctly similar to the Neanderthals that eventually inhabited the region , while others seem more archaic . While other ancient human fossils have been found in Europe , what lay out this discovery apart is the fact that not only was it divulge in situ with a whole host of tool and other fossil fauna bones , but more significantly it can be accurately go steady to 400,000 years ago .
It makes the find not only the honest-to-goodness dodo human skull ever discovered in Portugal , but also the westernmost human fossil ever receive in Europe dating from this period . “ This is an interesting new fossil breakthrough from the Iberian Peninsula , a crucial neighborhood for understanding the origin and organic evolution of the Neandertals,”explainsco - generator Rolf Quam , an associate prof of anthropology at Binghamton University in New York .
As it shares similarities with other fossils excavate across the continent – from Spain to France to Italy – it is think that it could help excuse the diversity in archaic human show throughout Europe . This may aid researchers in build a more detailed photograph of the phylogenesis of human species during this clip , and potentially facilitate explain where , and when , Neanderthals came into being .
The skull was bump alongside an raiment of Acheulean hand axes in the Aroeira cave . Rolf Quam
