Ourancient hominid ancestorsmay have taken up abode in the Iberian Peninsula around 295,800 years ago , according to a raw analysis of footprints found on a beach in Andalusia . Originally light upon in June 2020 , the print were first intend to have been made by Neanderthals about 106,000 years ago , yet the new evaluation suggests that they may have been left by an earlierspecies of human .
The tracks are imprinted into a layer of sediment within the Asperillo cliff inMatalascañas , and appear to have been made by at least three soul , include a child aged six to eight years . More than 300 footprints have been divulge so far , and the fact that they run towards a series of creature tracks suggests that they may have been leave by hunters .
Despite the print ’ remarkable state of preservation , researchers say they ca n’t reliably attribute them to a specific hominid species because their anatomical features are not detailed enough . However , original estimates of the footprints ’ age suggest that they come from the Upper Pleistocene , whenNeanderthalsinhabited the region .
The prints may have been left during a hunt. Image credit: Mayoral et al., Scientific Reports, 2022
To test this assumption , the source of a novel subject re - calculated the age of four sediment sample using a technique called optically stimulated glow . Results show that the material was in fact significantly older than first thought , and originated in the Middle Pleistocene .
More specifically , the footprint appear to have been made between a warm period know as Marine Isotope Stage 9 ( MIS 9 ) and the cooler MIS 8 , when a major glaciation pass off . Hominid remains from this era are exceedingly rarified , although the written report authors say that the warmer clime of southern Spain would have provided one of Europe ’s skillful home ground for human during this clock time .
To date , only four sites have yielded hominid footmark from the Middle Pleistocene . Prints from two of these site have been attributed to Neanderthals , while those from the remaining two sites are conceive to have been made by an early ascendant calledHomo heidelbergensis .
grant to the study authors , the length of the prints at all four of these site matches up with those atMatalascañas , suggesting they also go to one of these two species .
“ The Middle Pleistocene European hominin fossils belong to the neanderthal lineage , either Neandertals orHomo heidelbergensis , ” they save . “ Therefore , the most likely taxonomic assignment for the Matalascañas footmark would be one of the taxonomic group within this ancestry . However , a more precise attribution seems complicated as there are many debates about the phylogeny of this derivation but also about the taxonomic definition ofHomo heidelbergensis . ”
Interestingly , researchers also key caterpillar tread belonging to out fauna such as full-strength - tusk elephants and aurochs at Matalascañas . By re - evaluating the eld of the prints , the writer are able to substantiate that these species roamed the Iberian Peninsula during the Middle Pleistocene .
Overall , the researchers say that “ the Matalascañas footprint symbolize a all important criminal record for understanding human occupations in Europe in the Pleistocene . ”
The subject area has been published in the journalScientific Reports .
