The Atapuerca Mountains in northern Spain are home to the Sima de los Huesos, or "Pit of Bones," which has offered one of the most significant insights into the early history of humanity.

Archeologists unearthed fossilized facial bone fragments in the Sima del Elefante cave near Spain's Atapuerca Mountains that may represent a previously unknown species — making it the oldest ...

More than 400,000 years ago—long before the rise of the first agricultural civilizations or even the arrival of Homo sapiens ...

Researchers have determined that fossilized bone fragments found in a cave in the Sierra de Atapuerca mountains of northern Spain come from the earliest known face in Western Europe, which ...

Original fossil, called ATE7-1, of the midface of a mystery hominin recovered at the Sima del Elefante site in the Atapuerca Mountains near Burgos, Spain. Maria D. Guillén/IPHES-CERCA.

The same cave complex in Spain's Atapuerca Mountains where the new fossil was found also previously yielded other significant clues to the ancient human past.

The same cave complex in Spain's Atapuerca Mountains where the new fossil was found also previously yielded other significant clues to the ancient human past.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A fossil of a partial face from a human ancestor is the oldest in western Europe, archaeologists reported Wednesday. The incomplete skull — a section of the left cheek bone ...

Million-year-old face fossil sheds new light on ancient human migrations. Scientists say a fossil of a partial face from a early human ancestor in Spain is between 1.1 and 1.4 million years old ...

Original fossil, called ATE7-1, of the midface of a mystery hominin recovered at the Sima del Elefante site in the Atapuerca Mountains near Burgos, Spain. Maria D. Guillén/IPHES-CERCA.