the controversial Mandible of Banyoles (Girona), discovered in a quarry in 1887, probably belonged to an anatomically modern human, someone like any of us, or at least very similar. Due to its age, between 45,000 and 65,000 years old, the fossil had been considered a Neanderthal until now, although its morphology did not fully coincide with that archaic species. A new study carried out by Spanish and American researchers may have put an end to the controversy. According to his conclusions, it was a sapiens, the oldest in Europe known so far. The study anticipates the arrival of our species in the Iberian Peninsula and the continent by thousands of years.
The Banyoles mandible belonged to an adult individual between the ages of 40 and 50 with marked dental wear, perhaps due to the type of diet it ate. Since its discovery, it has been analyzed by numerous scientific teams. Despite this, its situation within human evolution has been much debated, without being able to definitively resolve it.
«The Banyoles jaw has always been very enigmatic. Due to its chronology it should correspond to a Neanderthal, since there were no sapiens in Europe then, but surprisingly its anatomy does not match that of Neanderthals, which have very characteristic and recognizable features. To explain it, it has even been proposed that it was a pathological Neanderthal”, Ignacio Martínez, a researcher at HM Hospitales – Universidad de Alcalá and co-author of the study published this Thursday in the Journal of Human Evolution, explains to this newspaper.
In the new study, which uses CT images, the researchers reconstructed the missing parts of the fossil on a computer. In this way, it has been possible to obtain a three-dimensional virtual model that has been compared with other fossils using a technique known as Geometric Morphometry.
«It’s not a Neanderthal. It is in almost all its morphology a modern human. However, the existence of a chin (chin) is not appreciated, so it cannot be ruled out that it has some Neanderthal ancestor«, affirms categorically Juan Luis Arsuaga, scientific director of the Museum of Human Evolution and also co-author of the article.
Along the same lines, Martínez points out that the absence of a chin “can be explained by two possibilities: because it is a primitive variant of sapiens without a chin or because, and this is more reasonable, it is a hybrid, a descendant of sapiens and Neanderthal,” he points out. Martinez.
the fossil of A wise man Until today considered the oldest in Europe was Pestera cu Oase 1 in Romania, between 34,000 and 36,000 years old, “but we affirm that the one in Banyoles is older,” continues Arsuaga. The study suggests that sapiens reached the peninsula and Europe much earlier than previously thought.
The researchers add that their conclusions could be verified through analysis of ancient DNA or proteomics. They plan to make the CT and 3D model of Banyoles available to other researchers so that they can include them in future comparative studies.