Thirty years after the first Homo antecessor fossils changed ideas about Europe’s earliest people, archaeologists have added another chapter to the story. During the 2026 excavation season at Gran Dolina in Spain’s Atapuerca Mountains, researchers uncovered 24 new human fossils from the Aurora layer. The finds give scientists the most complete picture yet of a Homo antecessor group living about 850,000 years ago.
The latest finds raise the minimum number of known individuals from the site to between 13 and 15. The biggest change comes from the number of adults. Earlier fossil collections held mostly children and teenagers, which limited studies of the group’s age structure. The new material includes at least six adults, giving researchers a much broader view of the population.
Many of the newly recovered bones carry cut marks left while the bodies were processed after death. Similar marks found during earlier excavations showed Homo antecessor practiced cannibalism at Gran Dolina. The latest evidence shows adults faced the same treatment as younger members of the group.
Researchers say the larger sample gives a better picture of daily life and social structure. With adults now better represented, scientists have a stronger base for studying growth, body shape, age distribution, and behavior in one of Europe’s earliest human groups.
Excavations returned this year to the Aurora layer, the same deposit where the first Homo antecessor fossils came to light during the mid 1990s. Work focused on only a small area, yet human remains appeared almost at once. Four fossils turned up within the first few days, and more followed through the rest of the season.
The new collection includes part of a skull’s temporal bone, neck and lower back vertebrae, finger and toe bones, three teeth, and pieces of several long bones. Archaeologists also recovered the first ulna, one of the forearm bones, ever found at Gran Dolina. Fragments of the tibia, femur, and humerus were also recovered. Most bones are broken into small pieces, though each adds new information about a species known from a limited fossil record.
Researchers are now studying the remains in detail. They hope the larger collection answers questions about whether adults and children received different treatment after death, how episodes of cannibalism took place, and how Homo antecessor groups lived together.
The excavation also produced stone tools made from flint, quartzite, sandstone, and quartz. Animal bones from hyenas, beavers, deer, bovids, horses, and rhinoceroses were found in the same layer. These finds help rebuild the environment where Homo antecessor lived and hunted.
Gran Dolina stands apart because human fossils, stone tools, and animal remains lie together in the same deposits. This allows archaeologists to rebuild a human occupation site from 850,000 years ago with unusual detail and trace how some of Europe’s first people found food, used raw materials, and lived as a group.
The newly excavated area has already expanded the Homo antecessor fossil record. Future field seasons are expected to add more bones and help answer long-standing questions about the biology, diet, population structure, and behavior of some of the first humans to settle Europe.