Enigmatic human fossil jawbone may be evidence of an early *Homo sapiens* presence in Europe – and adds mystery about who those humans were

• Anthropologists are pretty confident in that estimate, based on fossil, genetic and archaeological evidence.
• How modern humans spread throughout the rest of the world is one of the most active areas of research in human evolutionary studies.
• While additional H. sapiens fossils are found from around 120,000 years ago in this same region, it seems modern humans reached Europe much later.

Homo sapiens fossils found in Europe

• Because of their early historical presence, Neandertal fossils had a big influence on how early researchers thought about human evolution.
• More than a decade later, in 1868, paleontologists uncovered H. sapiens fossils at the site of Cro-Magnon in southern France.
• For much of the 20th century, the 30,000-year-old Cro-Magnon fossils represented the earliest fossil evidence of our species in Europe.
• Ancient DNA analysis has confirmed that the fossils from these sites represent H. sapiens.

Reinvestigating a ‘Neandertal’ mandible

• Over a century ago in 1889, a fossil human lower jaw, or mandible, was found at a quarry near the town of Banyoles, in northeastern Spain.
• Pere Alsius, a prominent local pharmacist, first studied the mandible, and the fossil has been curated by his family ever since.
• Researchers did not have a good idea of how old the Banyoles mandible was, with most believing it likely dated to the Middle Pleistocene (780,000-130,000 years ago).
• Based on recent modern uranium-series and electron spin resonance dating, researchers now believe the Banyoles mandible is between 45,000 and 66,000 years old.
• We relied on a CT scan to virtually reconstruct damaged or missing portions of the mandible and generated a 3D model of the complete fossil.

Figuring out the closest match

• When the mandible was discovered, it was still encased in a hard travertine block and only partially exposed.
• During initial cleaning and preparation of the specimen, it was accidentally dropped and the chin region was damaged.
• Could the lack of a chin in the Banyoles fossil be a result of interbreeding with Neandertals, who also lacked a chin?
• Genetic evidence suggests that H. sapiens most likely interbred with Neandertals between 45,000 and 65,000 years ago, making this a possibility.
• In the meantime, the 3D model of Banyoles is available for other researchers to study and form their own conclusions.