Skull from Sima de los HuesosJAVIER TRUEBA/MADRID SCIENTIFIC FILMSThe separation of the Neanderthal and modern human lineages was thought to have occurred during the Middle Pleistocene era (from 780,000 to 130,000 years ago), but exactly when and how this separation occurred is still unclear. Now, an analysis of 17 ancient skulls from a site in Atapuerca, Spain, provides evidence of the early evolution of the Neanderthal lineage. The results were published today (June 19) in Science.
Juan Luis Arsuaga Ferreras, a professor of human paleontology at Complutense University of Madrid in Spain, along with his colleagues characterized this unique collection of specimens from a small chamber within a cave called Sima de los Huesos, finding that the skulls show a combination of both Neanderthal and more ancient morphologies.
The researchers estimate that the skulls are about 430,000 years old—the oldest specimens with Neanderthal features to be found thus far, according to Arsuaga.
“We now have a reliable minimum age for the split between the lineages that ultimately led to the Neanderthals and to the modern humans,” said coauthor Warren Sharp from the Berkeley Geochronology Center in California. “We know that the Sima fossils are already part way down the branch that ...
