Two students have found a human tooth from about 560,000 years ago in a famous prehistoric cave in south-western France, a discovery praised by archaeologists as the oldest human body part ever discovered in the country and being rare from that period in Europe.
The tooth was found last week during excavations at Tautavel, one of Europe’s most important prehistoric sites, where about 40 volunteers are working under the supervision of scientists.
Palaeoanthropologist Tony Chevalier, researcher at Tautavel’s archaeological laboratory, called it a “major discovery”.
