560,000-year-old human incisor discovered in France

Two student volunteers in Tautavel, France have found the oldest human body part discovered in the country: An estimated 560,000-year-old incisor.

“A large adult tooth — we can’t say if it was from a male or female — was found during excavations of soil we know to be between 550,000 and 580,000 years old, because we used different dating methods,” palaeoanthropologist Amelie Viallet told AFP.

“This is a major discovery because we have very few human fossils from this period in Europe.”

Tautavel’s famous cave Caune de l’Arago has been host to enormous discoveries before—in 1971, a 450,000 year-old skull known as Tautavel Man was found, the previous record-holder for oldest human remains in France. Plenty of relics and animal bones have also been found, as the cave is believed to have been used for hundreds of thousands of years starting around 690,000 BCE.

“We believe these men have lived for a long time in the cave or have regularly come back into it,” explained Paleoanthropologist Tony Chevalier, researcher at Tautavel’s archaeological laboratory, to the Associated Press. “We also know that the area was quite cold at the time. It was a steppe, with no trees. There had to be some long periods with snow.”

Filling in gaps

This discovery is especially important, as very few human remains have been found dating back to that time period in Europe. Scientists hope that it will fill the gap between the oldest European fossils and newer ones.

Professor Chris Stringer, merit researcher in human origins at the Natural History Museum of London, told the AP that “well-dated teeth of this age are very important as they probably belonged to the species Homo heidelbergensis, which is already known from Arago (in Tautavel) in France, Mauer in Germany and Boxgrove in England.”

“If the tooth has calculus (tartar) attached to it, this may also provide direct evidence of the diet of these ancient humans,” he added.

“It’s a missing piece in a puzzle which could help us to answer a crucial question,” said Viallet. “Did the emergence of Neanderthal Man, 120,000 years ago, come from a single human line or not?”

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Feature Image Credit: Denis Dainat/EPCC-CERP Tauvalel