Detecting skulls dating to 430,000 years old

The Guardian (UK) reports, scientists have just restored the status quo of ancient skull fragments in northern Spain. As a result, they identified the skull as a characteristic of Neanderthals and thought to be the oldest fossil dated to around 430,000 years.

It is known that these fragments were excavated in the Joseph Valley area of ​​the Kasaan mountain region in northern Spain. After the shape was restored, Spanish scientists discovered that the skull had some characteristics similar to Neanderthals, such as typical signs in the tooth, jaw, and eyebrow parts Nose and nasal cavity.

However, these characteristics also show that the age of this skull must be before the era of the Neanderthals. This detected skull, for example, is very small, different from the relatively large shape of the Neanderthal skull.

Photos of 430,000-year-old skull after being restored to shape

In addition, based on other scientific methods, scientists assessed the age of the skull at about 430,000 years, while Neanderthals appeared about 400,000 years ago.

Ancient professor of biology at the University of Madrid, Juan Luis Arsuaga, said: 'We cannot say that this is the direct ancestor of the Neanderthals . But we can only say that they share a common ancestor with the Neanderthals, the transition from the old ancestors to the Neanderthals. '

Earlier, earlier Spanish researchers had believed that the skull date could be about 600,000 years ago, belonging to the Homo heidelbergensis family.

The excavated skulls will provide valuable historical documents for the study, the evolution of mankind 400,000 years ago.