Researchers from France, China, the UK and Greece revealed that the Petralona skull is at least 286,000 years old and places it firmly in the middle -plist doc era.
A new scientific study has shed new light on one of Europe's most important human fossils, the Petralona cranium, discovered in a cave in North Greece more than six decades ago. Long the subject of the debate, the true age of the fossil has now been attached with unprecedented precision and offers crucial insights into human evolution.
Researchers from France, China, the UK and Greece used advanced dating techniques for advanced uranium series to analyze calcite that had formed directly on the skull. Their findings, published in the Journal of Human Evolution, reveal that the Petralona skull is at least 286,000 years old and places it firmly in the middle -plist doc era. Earlier attempts for dating had yielded wild conflicting results, ranging from 170,000 to almost 700,000 years.
“This fossil has always been central in discussions about European prehistory,” said chief author Christophe Falguères of the Institut de Paléontology Humaine in Paris. “For the first time we have a reliable minimum age with which we can place Petralona in the right evolutionary context.”
The skull itself is a striking copy: almost complete, with functions that distinguish it from both Neanderthals and modern people. Many anthropologists are grouping it with Homo Heidelbergensis, a kind that is thought to represent the last common ancestor of Neanderthals and modern people. The new dating reinforces the case that Petralona belonged to a separate, more primitive human population that existed next to emerging Neanderthals alongside emerging Neanderthals.
The study also challenges the assumptions about the discovery of the fossil. For years, scientists believed that the skull was cemented on a cave wall. But the new analysis shows that the calcite coating of the skull is younger than formations on the walls, which suggests that the fossil may have been moved or deposited in the room before they are sealed in stone.
Location of Petralona cave in the Chalkidiki area, Greece. A representation of the karst including the most important places (B section, A1-A2 pit, mausoleum where the skull was found). The yellow part corresponds to the first investigated area of the Karst. (Credit: Journal of Human Evolution)
In addition to solving a long-term mystery, the findings reform our understanding of human prehistory in Southeastern Europe. They suggest that archaic populations, related to or within Homo Heidelbergensis, were still present in the region as 300,000 years ago, overlapping with the Neanderthal default.
“The Petralona skull reminds us that the human story of Europe is not a straight line,” said Chris Stringer of the London Natural History Museum, a co-author of the study. “It is a branching, complex history, with different populations next to each other.”
Scientists continue to promote their understanding of the fossil record; The skull of Petralona becomes a crucial key to understand human evolution.
