Palaeontologists have found what may be the oldest human fossil in western Europe — a 1.2 million-year-old tooth.

It was unearthed at a site in Atapuerca, northern Spain. The Atapuerca Foundation said:

“The tooth represents the oldest human fossil remain of western Europe. Now we finally have the anatomical evidence of the hominids that fabricated tools more than one million years ago. Since it is an isolated fossil remain, it is not possible at this point to confirm which Homo species this tooth belongs to,” but first analyses “allow us to suppose it is an ancestor of Homo antecessor.”

This is believed to either be the same or an ancestor species to Homo heidelbergensis, which lived in Europe from 600,000-250,000 years ago. It has been put forward as a common ancestor to Neanderthals and modern humans (Homo sapiens). I lack the anthropological background to favour or discredit this theory.

Read the rest of the tooth story here.

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