Human tooth Tautavel is 560,000 years old – Centre Press

A prehistoric human tooth was discovered in Tautavel near Perpignan, allowing scientists to get closer to the origins of the case.

The tooth was discovered Thursday by two young French volunteers working on the excavations of the Caune Argo, near the village of Tautavel, north-west of Perpignan.

The lower incisor, including if it belonged to some unknown a man or a woman, date of 560,000 years, 100,000 years before the famous Tautavel Man, 450.000 years old and was found on the same site in 1971.
For Amélie Viallet paleoanthropologist who works at the Centre for Research of the village there is a “ major discovery .” This find, important to locate the “ oldest settlement Eurasia ” occurs after the discovery of another incisive in June, which went unnoticed. “ It has very few human fossils at that time in Europe” says Amélie Viallet except Mauer mandible, discovered in 1907 in Germany and dated around 600,000 years.

A “puzzle piece”

This tooth and the discovery last year will help clarify the debate that is currently raging on the Homo heidelbergensis , the ancestor of the Neanderthals, according to Tony Knight, another paleoanthropologist at the Centre.
“ It’s a piece of the puzzle that we missing, to help answer the crucial question: what Neanderthals, 120,000 years from a single line , “says Amélie Viallet
The two paleoanthropologists hope?. find an entire mandible that will indicate to them if there was an evolution of the species or not.
“ A Tautavel was a human presence which is likely to 690,000 years, which exceeds the origin of the species ‘s Homo heidelbergensis up between 600 and 650,000 years, says Tony Knight, which however do not regret having found, instead, a molar or premolar that would have given more information about the origins of the species.
Other experts, however, expect to know more to decide on the scope of discovery. “ I would not say that finding a single tooth is a major discovery, unfortunately ,” says Matthew Skinner for his part, paleoanthropologist at the University of Kent in Britain.