Curran Sabrina C, Drăgușin Virgil, Pobiner Briana, Pante Michael, Hellstrom John, Woodhead Jon, Croitor Roman, Doboș Adrian, Gogol Samantha E, Ersek Vasile, Keevil Trevor L, Petculescu Alexandru, Popescu Aurelian, Robinson Chris, Werdelin Lars, Terhune Claire E
Department of Sociology & Anthropology, Ohio University; Athens, Ohio, USA.
Emil Racoviţă Institute of Speleology, Romanian Academy, Bucharest, Romania.
Nat Commun. 2025 Jan 20;16(1):836. doi: 10.1038/s41467-025-56154-9.
The timing of the initial dispersal of hominins into Eurasia is unclear. Current evidence indicates hominins were present at Dmanisi, Georgia by 1.8 million years ago (Ma), but other ephemeral traces of hominins across Eurasia predate Dmanisi. However, no hominin remains have been definitively described from Europe until ~1.4 Ma. Here we present evidence of hominin activity at the site of Grăunceanu, Romania in the form of multiple cut-marked bones. Biostratigraphic and high-resolution U-Pb age estimates suggest Grăunceanu is > 1.95 Ma, making this site one of the best-dated early hominin localities in Europe. Environmental reconstructions based on isotopic analyzes of horse dentition suggest Grăunceanu would have been relatively temperate and seasonal, demonstrating a wide habitat tolerance in even the earliest hominins in Eurasia. Our results, presented along with multiple other lines of evidence, point to a widespread, though perhaps intermittent, presence of hominins across Eurasia by at least 2.0 Ma.
古人类首次向欧亚大陆扩散的时间尚不清楚。目前的证据表明，早在180万年前（Ma），古人类就已出现在格鲁吉亚的德马尼西，但欧亚大陆其他地方短暂出现的古人类踪迹早于德马尼西。然而，直到约140万年前，欧洲才明确发现古人类遗骸。在此，我们展示了罗马尼亚格劳恩恰努遗址存在古人类活动的证据，其形式为多块带有切割痕迹的骨头。生物地层学和高分辨率铀铅年代测定结果表明，格劳恩恰努遗址的年代超过195万年，使其成为欧洲年代测定最准确的早期古人类遗址之一。基于马牙列同位素分析的环境重建表明，格劳恩恰努地区气候相对温和且有季节性变化，这表明即使是欧亚大陆最早的古人类也具有广泛的栖息地适应性。我们的研究结果与其他多条证据一起表明，至少在200万年前，古人类就在欧亚大陆广泛存在，尽管可能是间歇性的。
