Fossil reanalysis could change story of first humans in Europe

+ 'bleep' sound played starring role on 'The Jerry Springer Show' US Edition - Today's top story: Enigmatic human fossil jawbone may be evidence of an early *Homo sapiens* presence in Europe – and adds mystery about who those humans were [View in browser]( US Edition | 2 May 2023 [The Conversation] [The Conversation]( Top headlines - [Study IDs toxic chemicals in consumer cleaning products]( - [Twitter chatter destabilized Silicon Valley Bank]( - [Should religious rights trump other human rights?]( Lead story Sometimes new ideas in archaeology come not from freshly discovered fossils or artifacts but from specimens that were collected long ago. That’s the case with a fossil jawbone uncovered in Spain in 1889. Anthropologists Brian Anthony Keeling and Rolf Quam from Binghamton University used CT scans, 3D models and modern dating techniques to reanalyze the fossil. They now suspect that the jawbone, long assumed to have belonged to a Neandertal, may actually have come from a member of our own species, Homo sapiens. That possibility [raises more questions](, though, since this individual would then be one of the earliest of our kind known to have lived in Europe. [[Sign up here to our topic-specific weekly emails.](] Maggie Villiger Senior Science + Technology Editor Close examination of digital and 3D-printed models suggested the fossil needs to be reclassified. Brian A. Keeling [Enigmatic human fossil jawbone may be evidence of an early Homo sapiens presence in Europe – and adds mystery about who those humans were]( Brian Anthony Keeling, Binghamton University, State University of New York; Rolf Quam, Binghamton University, State University of New York Scientists had figured a fossil found in Spain more than a century ago was from a Neandertal. But a new analysis suggests it could be from a lost lineage of our species, Homo sapiens. 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