A site in Spain has been identified as the first location in Europe with footprints of a species belonging to the genus Homo.
A recent study published in the journal Earth-Science Reviews has helped resolve one of the longest-standing debates in anthropology: When did prehistoric humans arrive in Europe?
According to anthropologist Luis Gibert from the University of Barcelona (Spain), the lead author of the study, “The timeline for the migration of Homo out of Africa has significantly expanded over the past four decades.”
Homo is one of the four genera within the family Hominidae, to which modern humans and our closest relatives belong.
1.32 million years ago, a species of the genus Homo conquered Europe – (AI Illustration: Anh Thư).
Although some species of the genus Homo still resemble early hominins, they have generally crossed significant evolutionary thresholds to become more similar to modern humans in many aspects.
In 1982, the oldest evidence of Homo in Asia was identified using the method of paleomagnetism, dating back 0.9 million years in Java (Indonesia) and 0.7 million years in Italy (Europe).
Forty years later, the dating of the first Homo outside Africa has been extended to 1.8 million years ago through sites in the South Caucasus (an area at the border between Asia and Europe).
Additionally, evidence of Homo dating back 1.7-2.1 million years has also been found in China and 1.5-1.3 million years in Java.
In Europe, subsequent paleontological data also indicate several sites showing traces of Homo that are older than the previously established date of 0.77 million years ago.
This time, the authors employed stratigraphic dating methods, based on the Earth’s magnetic field state at the time the sediments formed, to study five sites in the Orce region of Spain.
These five sites are stratified and are located within a sedimentary sequence over 80 meters long.
They identified three of these sites containing traces of Homo species, with ages of 1.32 million years (Venta Micena), 1.28 million years (Barranco León-5), and 1.23 million years (Fuente Nueva-3).
Of course, with these ages, the humans that conquered Europe were not our species. At that time, many human species existed on Earth, the most notable being Homo erectus, also known as the “upright man,” which emerged around 2 million years ago.
It was not until 300,000 years ago that Homo sapiens — us — came into existence.
This new discovery suggests that the Strait of Gibraltar — a narrow strait connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Atlantic Ocean — may have once served as a crucial gateway for a major migration of various species from Africa to Europe, from early hominins to hippopotamuses.
Regarding why humans migrated to Europe after Asia, the research team suggests it was because they had to wait until they had the necessary technology to overcome maritime barriers, similar to what occurred a million years ago on Flores Island – Indonesia.
The current route through Gibraltar spans a length of about 14 kilometers. However, it is likely that in the past, this distance was shorter at various times due to significant geological activity in the area and substantial fluctuations in sea levels, sometimes reaching very low levels.
Many other African animals also migrated through Gibraltar around 6.2 to 5.5 million years ago when this strait was much narrower than it is today.
