“Ancient Secrets Unveiled: Bulgaria’s Cave Reveals Earth’s Oldest Modern Human Footprints!”
The discovery of these modern human bone fragments was detailed in two separate papers in the journals Nature and Nature Ecology & Evolution.
Bacho Kiro Cave is known to be rich with Palaeolithic fossils. Excavations were performed at the cave in the early 20th century. But by the time the 1970s rolled around, many of the human bones that were found there had somehow been lost.
Tsenka TsanovaResearchers also found tools resembling those made by the last surviving Neanderthals.
New specimens were uncovered during 2015 excavations of the cave, resulting in the discovery of pieces of bones. The specimens found were so fragmented that scientists were unable to determine what species the bones had belonged to, or whether they were animal or human, through a quick physical examination.
They were able to quickly assess one tooth specimen as belonging to modern humans, but it was not enough for researchers to accurately determine that their bounty of fossils indeed belonged to H. sapiens.
The researchers brought their findings back to the lab for a proper analysis. They used a mass spectrometry technique called ZooMS to find protein sequences among hundreds of unidentified bone fragments that matched the H. sapiens species. They found that five of the bone fragments came from our modern human ancestors.
More shocking was the age of the fragments. Using a combination of methods involving radiocarbon dating and sequencing of mitochondrial DNA, the researchers estimated that these humans inhabited the cave roughly 45,820 to 43,650 years ago. Some of the remains could possibly even date back even further to 46,940 years ago.
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