‘Face of the first European’: Archeologists in Spain may have found continent’s oldest human fossil

Partial face remains may predate current oldest human ancestor fossil found in Europe by 200,000 years

Archaeologists in Spain claimed to have found what could be the oldest human fossil unearthed in Europe, likely dating back some 1.4 million years ago.

Researchers associated with the non-profit Atapuerca Foundation say the oldest hominid fossil found in Europe until now was a jawbone unearthed in the Atapuerca mountain range of northern Spain in 2007 that was estimated to be 1.2 million years old.

The new fossil discovery, which is yet to be published in a peer-reviewed journal, consists of another jawbone fragment unearthed at the same site, about 2m below the layer of earth where the 2007 jawbone was found.