Archaeologica.org

Minimalist wrote:Still....most likely it was colder in the north and Spain and Dmanisi are fairly far south.

Since we now know those [1997] fossils date to 900,000 [years ago], the time difference is not great, and, provisionally at least, I think it's logical to assign the mandible to Homo antecessor," said dig co-director José Maria Bermúdez de Castro of the National Research Center on Human Evolution in Burgos, Spain.

The new findings suggest that H. antecessor was most probably unique to Europe, the researchers say.

The earliest known human fossils found outside of Africa are from Dmanisi in the modern-day Republic of Georgia. Identified as either Homo erectus or Homo ergaster, the remains date to around 1.8 million years ago.

"The Republic of Georgia is at the gates of Europe," Bermúdez de Castro said. "It's the crossroads between Africa and Eurasia from a geographical point of view."

But H. erectus fossils estimated to be 1.6 million years old have been located as far away as Java in Indonesia, he noted.

Because of that, "we think that in Europe we are going to find more hominin fossils probably older than those of Sima del Elefante," Bermúdez de Castro said.

An abundance of small, insect-eating species suggests the climate then was generally warm and humid, the study added.

Some new info in this article. This notion of a new European species is going to mushroom - newswise.

Beagle wrote:http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news ... opean.html

Since we now know those [1997] fossils date to 900,000 [years ago], the time difference is not great, and, provisionally at least, I think it's logical to assign the mandible to Homo antecessor," said dig co-director José Maria Bermúdez de Castro of the National Research Center on Human Evolution in Burgos, Spain.

The new findings suggest that H. antecessor was most probably unique to Europe, the researchers say.

The earliest known human fossils found outside of Africa are from Dmanisi in the modern-day Republic of Georgia. Identified as either Homo erectus or Homo ergaster, the remains date to around 1.8 million years ago.

"The Republic of Georgia is at the gates of Europe," Bermúdez de Castro said. "It's the crossroads between Africa and Eurasia from a geographical point of view."

But H. erectus fossils estimated to be 1.6 million years old have been located as far away as Java in Indonesia, he noted.

Because of that, "we think that in Europe we are going to find more hominin fossils probably older than those of Sima del Elefante," Bermúdez de Castro said.

An abundance of small, insect-eating species suggests the climate then was generally warm and humid, the study added.

What we seem to have is an early enough occupation of both Europe and Asia to establish an intra-continental development of speciation, rather than the inter-continental theory of multiple "Out of Africa" occurrences.

Bruce wrote:1.2 mil in europe
1.2 mil in mexico

anybody checking with Valsequillo about dna matches?

But human remains found 10 years ago in the same Spanish region, and by the same team that found the jawbone, suggested the date was further back, to about 800,000 years ago. It prompted them to name them as a new and distinct species, Homo antecessor, or "Pioneer Man" – a move criticized by many at the time as premature.

Whatever its classification, the new discovery pushes the date for human occupation of Europe back further still. Noted Spanish anthropologist Eudald Carbonell,whose team unearthed the jaw last June, has no doubt of its significance.

"This find is incredible," he said after details of the discovery were published last month in the science journal Nature. "It's forceful evidence for a continual occupation in Europe from at least 1.3 million years ago."

Perhaps even before that. Primitive stone tools dating 300,000 years older still have been uncovered in Spain, as well as Italy and France, though as yet no human remains.

"It's forceful evidence for a continual occupation in Europe from at least 1.3 million years ago."