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Fossil From Last Common Ancestor Of Neanderthals And Humans Found In Europe, 1.2 Million Years Old
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080403185958.htm
U-M researchers involved in oldest European human fossil find
http://www.ns.umich.edu/htdocs/releases/story.php?id=6434
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080403185958.htm
Wow.ScienceDaily (Apr. 4, 2008) — University of Michigan researcher Josep M. Pares is part of a team that has discovered the oldest known remains of human ancestors in Western Europe.
The find shows that members of the genus Homo, to which modern humans belong, colonized the region much earlier than previously believed. Details of the discovery were published in the March 27 issue of the journal Nature.
The fossil—a small piece of jawbone with a few teeth—was found last year in a cave in the mountains of northern Spain, along with primitive stone tools and bones of animals that appear to have been butchered.
The team, led by Spanish researchers Juan Luis Arsuaga, José María Bermúdez de Castro and Eudald Carbonell, used three separate techniques (including paleomagnetic analyses performed by Pares) to determine that the fossil is about 1.2 million years old. That's 500,000 years older than the previous oldest known humanlike fossils from the area. The new find bolsters the view that Homo reached Europe not long after leaving Africa almost 2 million years ago.
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U-M researchers involved in oldest European human fossil find
http://www.ns.umich.edu/htdocs/releases/story.php?id=6434