A 400,000-year-old fossil offers new clues on how humans evolved
Deep inside a Portuguese cave, the fossil of a human cranium lay buried for 400,000 years, surrounded by a smattering of stone tools and animal remains.
A team of archeologists recently retrieved the fossil, unearthing a new understanding of how humans evolved in western Europe during the middle Pleistocene — a period that spanned roughly 781,000 to 126,000 years ago.
The cranium found in Portugal's Aroeira cave belonged to a Neanderthal, the closest extinct relative of modern humans.
Researchers say it's the oldest human fossil ever found in Portugal and shares some features with other fossils found in Spain, France and Italy from the same period. The cranium is also one of the earliest human fossils in Europe to be connected to prehistoric stone tools, according to a study published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Read more...
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