- Oct 17, 2011
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Researchers have determined that fossilized bone fragments found in a cave in the Sierra de Atapuerca mountains of northern Spain come from the earliest known face in Western Europe, which belonged to a hominin estimated to be 1.1 million to 1.4 million years old, archaeologists reported Wednesday.
Discovered in 2022, the portions of the left side of an adult face belong to a hominin dubbed “Pink” after the rock band Pink Floyd. The bones from Pink significantly predate those of Homo antecessor, the oldest hominin species previously found at the site, according to the authors of a study in the journal Nature.
Pink appears not to fit neatly into the known hominin species and has been classified for now as Homo affinis erectus, meaning closely related to Homo erectus, Latin for “upright man.”
Comparisons in the paper, Hawks said, all support the idea that the latest hominin found in the Sima del Elefante “was a kind of relative of Homo erectus fossils found much further to the east, as far as Indonesia, as well as in their first homeland of Africa.”
Discovered in 2022, the portions of the left side of an adult face belong to a hominin dubbed “Pink” after the rock band Pink Floyd. The bones from Pink significantly predate those of Homo antecessor, the oldest hominin species previously found at the site, according to the authors of a study in the journal Nature.
Pink appears not to fit neatly into the known hominin species and has been classified for now as Homo affinis erectus, meaning closely related to Homo erectus, Latin for “upright man.”
Comparisons in the paper, Hawks said, all support the idea that the latest hominin found in the Sima del Elefante “was a kind of relative of Homo erectus fossils found much further to the east, as far as Indonesia, as well as in their first homeland of Africa.”
