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The advancement of forensic analysis techniques has allowed paleontologists to go back in time and obtain biological material from a fossil of no less than 800,000 years old. This is the dental remains of an individual of the Homo antecessor species found in the Atapuerca site in Burgos.
Quite an achievement because DNA is degraded and until now, the oldest human biological remains analyzed were about 400,000 years old , according to Enrico Cappellini, a researcher at the University of Copenhagen and leader of this research in which Spanish scientists from the Center are participating. National Research on Human Evolution (CENIEH).
As they explain this week in the journal Nature , they have achieved this through a technique called mass spectrometry , which has allowed the sequencing of tooth enamel proteins. Information that, in turn, has allowed scientists to determine the evolution of this species in the hominid family tree and support the theory that closely links it with the ancestors of modern humans.
"The analysis of ancient proteins shows the close relationship between the Homo antecessor species, us ( Homo sapiens ), the Neanderthals and the Denisovans. Our results support the idea that Homo antecessor was a sister group to the group in which they were Sapiens , Neanderthals and Denisovans, "said Frido Welker, a researcher at the University of Copenhagen and the first author of this study.
The lineages of humans and chimpanzees separated between nine and seven million years ago. Through paleontological research on the remains found in the sites, scientists try to understand how the different species of hominids that have existed throughout history evolved and the relationships that existed between them. They get clues mostly from three sources: the shape and characteristics of the fossils, the DNA when they do, and the terrain in which they find it.
Now, the study of these ancient proteins is proof of this proximity between species. It has also revealed that the subject studied was a male .
The study also looked at another important and older fossil, that of a Homo erectus from Dmanisi, Georgia, dating to 1.77 million years ago. However, the biological material obtained was insufficient for the investigation.
Found in 1994
The fossil of 'Homo antecessor' that stars in the investigation was found by José María Bermúdez de Castro, co-director of Atapuerca together with Juan Luis Arsuaga and Eudald Carbonell, in 1994, at the Gran Dolina site.
The first hypotheses that were proposed when observing these remains is that Homo antecessor was the last common ancestor between humans and Neanderthals. But in the following years, the relationship between H. antecessor and other human groups, such as sapiens and Neanderthals, was the subject of scientific debate.
In a statement, Bermúdez de Castro was satisfied with the results of this study "on the possible relationship between Homo antecessor, the common ancestor of Neanderthals, modern humans and Denisovans." The characteristics that H. antecessor shared with these hominid species "clearly appeared much earlier than previously thought," says the paleontologist.
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