Ancient human skull discovered in Greece rewrites human evolutionary timeline
Researchers from France, China, England and Greece revealed that Petraralona Cranium was at least 286,000 years old and firmly placed it in the middle Pleistocene period.
A New scientific study He just shed light on Petraralona Cranium, one of the most important human fossils in Europe discovered in a cave in the north Greece More than twenty years ago. For a long time, the real age of the fossil has been fixed with unprecedented sensitivity and provided important information about human evolution.
Researchers from France, China, England and Greece used advanced uranium series dating techniques to analyze directly formed directly. skull. The magazine reveals the findings published in Human Evolution that Petraralona Cranium is at least 286,000 years old and firmly placed it in the middle Pleistocene period. Earlier attempts to exit had produced crazy contradictory results between 170,000 and 700,000 years.
“This fossil has always been the center of prehistoric debates, Christ, Christophe Falguères, the chief writer of Institut de Paléontologie Homain in Paris. “For the first time, we have a reliable minimum age that allows us to place Petraralona in the appropriate evolutionary context.”
The skull itself is a striking example: it is almost complete with the features that distinguish it from both Neanderthals and modern people. Many anthropologists are grouping with Homo Heidelbergensis, a species that is thought to represent the last common ancestors of Neanderthals and modern people. The new meeting strengthens the case that Petraralona belongs to a different, more primitive human population that exists with the emerging Neanderthals.
The study also challenges assumptions about the discovery of the fossil. Academics believed that the skull was cement on a cave wall for years. However, the new analysis shows that the cranium covering is younger than the formations on the walls, which suggests that the fossil may have been moved or accumulated before the stone is closed.
The Kalkidic region of the Petraralona Cave is the place of Greece. An appearance of Karstin containing the main places (section B, A1-A2 pit, tomb with cranium). The yellow part corresponds to the first discovered area of Karstin. (Credit: Human Evolution Magazine)
Beyond solving a long -term mystery, findings reshape our understanding of human history in Southeast Europe. They argue that archaic populations associated with Homo Heidelbergensis are still overlapping with the Neanderthal lineage in the region about 300,000 years ago.
“Petraralona cranium reminds us that the human story of Europe is not a straight line, Chris said Chris Stringer of London’s Nature History Museum. “A complex history where different populations are present side by side.”
Scientists carry their understanding of fossil recording further; Petraralona skull becomes a critical key to understanding human evolution.
