The excavation at the Atapuerca site in Spain has revealed the remains of a Homo antecessor girl, a different species but belonging to the same genus as us.
According to Ancient Origins, the Homo antecessor species existed on Earth approximately 1.2 to 800,000 years ago and is one of the earliest human species present in Europe.
Homo antecessor, meaning “pioneer” in Latin, was first discovered in the Gran Dolina cave at the Atapuerca site in 1994 and was recognized as a distinct species in 1997.
Excavation at the Atapuerca site in Burgos, Spain – (Photo: IPHES).
For a long time, it was believed that this species was the last common ancestor of Homo sapiens (also known as modern humans) and another sibling species, the Neanderthals.
However, more recent studies have shown that this is not accurate. Currently, the most widely accepted theory is that Homo antecessor belongs to a branch of the evolutionary lineage that includes us, splitting off just before the Neanderthals did.
In early 2024, a research team from the Catalan Institute of Palaeoecology and Social Evolution (IPHES) was excavating in unit TD6 of the Gran Dolina cave when they accidentally discovered the remains of an unidentified hominin.
Subsequent excavations continued to yield numerous skull fragments, two pieces of a mandible, several vertebrae, a wrist bone, and a single incisor.
All of these fossils were identified as belonging to a Homo antecessor woman, approximately 25 years old at the time of death.
Dating processes indicate that this woman lived around 850,000 years ago.
Previously, a series of tools belonging to this species had been found in the area, featuring technology consistent with several toolkits dating around 1 million years old, excavated throughout Western Europe.
This suggests that this different species could have been quite populous in prehistoric Europe before becoming extinct for unknown reasons.
Even at the time when Homo sapiens emerged—around 300,000 years ago—there were still at least 8-9 human species living in the world.
However, they all gradually became extinct, and today only Homo sapiens remains dominant in the genus.
