Replicas (left to right) of St Césaire Neanderthal (France, ~38,000 years old), the Kent’s Cavern maxilla (~42,500 years old), and Mladec 1 early modern human (Czech Republic, ~35,000 years old) NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM
Two new studies, published yesterday (November 2) in Nature, provide evidence that modern humans roamed Western Europe more than 41,000 years ago—earlier than any previous physical evidence of their presence.
In 1927, researchers unearthed a fragment of human upper jaw bone, whose dental morphology suggests it belonged to an early modern human, from Kent’s Cavern in southern England, and dated it to about 35,000 years old. But a new analysis, conducted by Erik Trinkaus of Washington University in St. Louis and his colleagues, suggests the bone is actually much older, originating between 44,200 and 41,500 years ago. The new estimate means the fossil predates previous evidence for early humans in Western Europe, which date to just 41,000 to 39,000 years ago.
“Modern humans were previously ...
