European fossil record

Abstract

Europe was the last Old World continent to be inhabited by hominins but was historically where interest in human prehistory originated. European research established the deep biocultural evolution of humans and provided much of the interpretive framework for that evolution. The earliest humans appear to have reached Europe around 1.3 million years ago. Hominin fossils are relatively rare in Europe until the advent of Neandertals, but the pre‐Neandertal record played an important role in early models of later human evolution and is critical for the understanding of pre‐Neandertal taxonomy today. The Neandertal and Upper Paleolithic modern humans are represented by a large fossil record. Although modern humans are late arrivals in Europe (∼ 40 thousand years ago), the pattern of relationships between them and the indigenous Neandertals is central to the understanding of later human evolution and the nature of modern human origin Old World‐wide.