Scientists are accused of distorting theory of human evolution by misdating bones

[Judi Lynn]

Scientists are accused of distorting theory of human evolution by misdating bones

Briton says Spanish researchers are out by 200,000 years and have even got the wrong species

The Observer, Saturday 9 June 2012

It is the world's biggest haul of human fossils and the most important palaeontology site in Europe: a subterranean chamber at the bottom of a 50ft shaft in the deepest recesses of the Atapuerca cavern in northern Spain. Dozens of ancient skeletons have been unearthed.

La Sima de los Huesos – the Pit of Bones – has been designated a Unesco world heritage site because of its importance to understanding evolution, and millions of euros, donated by the EU, have been spent constructing a museum of human antiquity in nearby Burgos.

But Britain's leading expert on human evolution, Professor Chris Stringer, of the Natural History Museum, has warned in the journal Evolutionary Anthropology that the team in charge of La Sima has got the ages of its fossils wrong by 200,000 years and has incorrectly identified the species of ancient humans found there.

Far from being a 600,000-year-old lair of a species called Homo heidelbergensis, he believes the pit is filled with Neanderthal remains that are no more than 400,000 years old. The difference in interpretation has crucial implications for understanding human evolution.

More:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/jun/10/fossil-dating-row-sima-huesos-spain

[mysuzuki2]

1. Dating remains found in a cave system is always likely to be difficult.

if they were washed into the cave like Stringer believes (and which I think is likely} they are likely to have been deposited over a long period of time. The species identity is kind of a red herring. I do not think the taxa H. heidelbergensis or H neanderthalensis are valid taxa. They are best considered as early H sapiens.