An old Spanish tooth
National Geographic News has a short article about the tooth from Sima del Elefante, Atapuerca.
The team notes that the tooth's age, dated at around 1.2 million years old, is similar to that of stone tools and animal fossils bearing human-tool cut marks uncovered at sites in Spain, France, and Italy.
"Now we finally have the anatomical evidence of the [early humans] that fabricated tools more than one million years ago," the team said in a statement.
The researchers added that they are waiting for final analysis of the tooth before publishing their findings in a scientific journal.
Not much more to say, really.
John Hawks Department of Anthropology
University of Wisconsin—Madison
Copyright © 2007 John Hawks