The tooth was discovered at a site in southern France

Jul 28, 2015 15:04 GMT  ·  By

In an interview with the press this past Tuesday, researchers in France announced the discovery of an ancient human tooth in a cave near the commune of Tautavel in the country's southern Pyrénées-Orientales department.

The tooth was found by 20-year-old archeology student Valentin Loescher and 16-year-old volunteer Camille Jacquey. Albeit a simple chomper - and not even one in a decent condition, for that matter, - the tooth is hailed as a major find by researchers.

What's so special about this tooth?

Having subjected it to a series of tests, scientists found that this ancient tooth archeology enthusiasts Valentin Loescher and Camille Jacquey discovered in the Arago Cave in France's Tautavel commune dates back to around 560,000 to 590,000 years back.

Even at its youngest, this makes the chomper one of the oldest human body parts thus far unearthed in this corner of the world, if not the absolute oldest.

Thus, The Local tells us the tooth predates the Tautavel Man, a fossilized Homo erectus skeleton also recovered from the Arago Cave, by about 100,000 years.

“Human remains from between 500,000 and 800,000 years ago are more than scarce in Europe nowadays, and this tooth fills a bit of the gap of the incompleteness in this 300,000-year period,” said researcher Christian Perrenoud.

The tooth, identified as an adult incisor, is quite degraded. Even so, specialists plan to further study it in an attempt to try and learn more about what the first Europeans looked like.

The tooth's owner is nowhere in sight

Unfortunately, the tooth was not attached to a skull when the young archaeologists came across it. In fact, its rightful owner is nowhere in sight.

Although it's highly unlikely that they will find a complete skeleton, the research team say they will have a closer look around the Arago Cave, just in case a couple of bones pop up.

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Valentin Loescher (left) and Camille Jacquey (right)
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