Spain's 'cannibal cave': New fossils reveal adults were also eaten by Homo antecessor

New fossil discoveries at Gran Dolina cave in northern Spain show that cannibalism practised by an ancient human relative called Homo antecessor was not limited to children, as earlier evidence had suggested. Researchers recovered two dozen bones and teeth belonging to this now extinct species, which lived in Europe between roughly 1.2 million and 770,000 years ago, and found that many of the newly uncovered remains came from adults rather than the young, defenceless individuals identified in previous excavations. Several of the bone fragments carried cut marks consistent with the use of stone tools, adding fresh detail to what is already considered the oldest known evidence of cannibalism practised for nutritional reasons among human relatives.What researchers found in the new Gran Dolina excavationAccording to astatement from the Catalan Institute of Human Paleoecology and Social Evolution, known by its Spanish acronym IPHES, the newly recovered remains include fragments of a skull, spine, arm and leg bones, along with three teeth belonging to several individuals. The bones were found at Gran Dolina, part of the wider Sierra de Atapuerca archaeological complex, a site recognised ...