The earliest human face of Western Europe

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Huguet, Rosa; Rodriguez-Alvarez, Xose Pedro; Martinon-Torres, Maria; Vallverdu, Josep; Lopez-Garcia, Juan Manuel; Lozano, Marina; Terradillos-Bernal, Marcos; Exposito, Isabel; Olle, Andreu; Santos, Elena; Saladie, Palmira; de Lombera-Hermida, Arturo; Moreno-Ribas, Elena; Martin-Frances, Laura; Allue, Ethel; Nunez-Lahuerta, Carmen; van der Made, Jan; Galan, Julia; Blain, Hugues-Alexandre; Caceres, Isabel; Rodriguez-Hidalgo, Antonio; Bargallo, Amelia; Mosquera, Marina; Pares, Josep Maria; Marin, Juan; Pineda, Antonio; Lordkipanidze, David; Margveslashvili, Ann; Arsuaga, Juan Luis; Carbonell, Eudald; de Castro, Jose Maria Bermudez
• 署名单位: Universitat Rovira i Virgili; Catalan Institute of Human Paleo-Ecology & Social Evolution (IPHES); Universitat Rovira i Virgili; Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (CSIC); CSIC - Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales (MNCN); Centro Nacional de Investigacion de La Evolucion Humana (CENIEH); University of London; Goldsmiths University London; University College London; Universidad Isabel I; Complutense University of Madrid; UCM-ISCIII Center for Human Evolution & Behavior; University of Oviedo; Monash University; University of Zaragoza; University of Basque Country; Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (CSIC); CSIC - Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales (MNCN); Leibniz Association; Senckenberg Gesellschaft fur Naturforschung (SGN); Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (CSIC); CSIC-Junta de Extremadura - Instituto de Arqueologia Merida (IAM); Universidad Nacional de Educacion a Distancia (UNED); Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle (MNHN); Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS); CNRS - Institute of Ecology & Environment (INEE); Complutense University of Madrid
• 刊物名称: Nature
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0028-3015
• DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-08681-0
• 发表日期: 2025-04-17
• 关键词: sima del elefante; gran dolina; early pleistocene; atapuerca; hominin; spain; homo; dmanisi; fossil; sierra

摘要

Who the first inhabitants of Western Europe were, what their physical characteristics were, and when and where they lived are some of the pending questions in the study of the settlement of Eurasia during the Early Pleistocene epoch. The available palaeoanthropological information from Western Europe is limited and confined to the Iberian Peninsula1,2. Here we present most of the midface of a hominin found at the TE7 level of the Sima del Elefante site (Sierra de Atapuerca, Spain), dated to between 1.4 million and 1.1 million years ago. This fossil (ATE7-1) represents the earliest human face of Western Europe identified thus far. Most of the morphological features of the midface of this hominin are primitive for the Homo clade and they do not display the modern-like aspect exhibited by Homo antecessor found at the neighbouring Gran Dolina site, also in the Sierra de Atapuerca, and dated to between 900,000 and 800,000 years ago3. Furthermore, ATE7-1 is more derived in the nasoalveolar region than the Dmanisi and other roughly contemporaneous hominins. On the basis of the available evidence, it is reasonable to assign the new human remains from TE7 level to Homo aff. erectus. From the archaeological, palaeontological and palaeoanthropological information obtained in the lower levels of the Sima del Elefante and Gran Dolina sites4, 5, 6, 7-8, we suggest a turnover in the human population in Europe at the end of the Early Pleistocene.