Petralona cranium

"We present new U-series dates performed on the calcite that grew directly on the cranium, which is the only sample able to provide crucial information on the age of the fossil.

"The results yield a finite age suggesting that the Petralona cranium has a minimum age of 286 ± 9 ka.

"Other speleothems and calcitic coatings were sampled in three main locations in the cave; among them, samples came from the ‘Mausoleum’ where the cranium was supposedly found cemented to a wall. The data show that the calcite covering the cranium is not contemporaneous with that of the Mausoleum wall, despite what was previously thought.

"The different possibilities, depending on whether or not the cranium was attached to the wall, are discussed in the paper. 

"From a morphological point of view, the Petralona hominin forms part of a distinct and more primitive group than Homo sapiens and Neanderthals, and the new age estimate provides further support for the coexistence of this population alongside the evolving Neanderthal lineage in the later Middle Pleistocene of Europe."


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