Viallet said it’s too early to know whether the prehistoric tooth belonged to a man or a female, but after further analysis they will be able to find more details about it.
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A large adult tooth almost 560,000 years old was found by a 16-year-old French volunteer archeologist in southwestern France, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported Tuesday.
The site where the tooth was found is also the same place where fossils belonging to the Tautavel Man, a species that lived an estimated 450,000 years ago, were discovered.
This site has been under excavation for almost 50 years, as it is one the world’s most important and famous prehistoric locations.
Paleoanthropologist Tony Chevalier, researcher at Tautavel’s archaeological laboratory, called it a “major discovery”. Other artifacts found in the cave from that time include the remains of the occupants’ meals, including the bones of horses, reindeer, bison, rhinoceros and sheep and stone tools.
This discovery is for archaeologists the oldest human body part ever found in France (Photo: EPA)”We believe these men have lived for a long time in the cave or have regularly come back into it”, Chevalier said. It was a steppe, with no trees. Perrenoud added that human remains that go back nearly 800,000 years ago are very hard to find in Europe, that’s why this prehistoric human tooth fills an important gap in the evolution of human ancestors.
Christian Perrenoud, a geo-archaeologist working on the site, said that while the tooth was a “great find”, there is a lot more left to unearth.
“Obviously, it’s a shock – a attractive encounter through time”, Amelie Vialet, an anthropologist who was overseeing the student dig, told radio station France Bleu.
In 2011, researchers at the cave discovered a baby tooth, suggesting Homo heidelbergensis, probably the ancestor of Homo sapiens in Africa and the Neanderthals in Europe, led a family life in the cave.
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The human tooth was discovered by a volunteer archaeologist named Camille who was working with a friend when she made the discovery last week. It might cost the tooth fairy more than she can afford but those two students just had a field day!
