Cranial Fossil of the Genus Homo Over 200,000 Years Old Discovered at Ruidera Site
IPHES-CERCA is participating in the study of a cranial fragment found at this site in Ciudad Real, the dating of which has been fundamental to placing it in the Middle Pleistocene, interpreting its unique combination of archaic features, and providing new
A skull fragment over 200,000 years old has made the Ruidera site (Ciudad Real) a promising paleoanthropological enclave for researching human evolution during the Middle Pleistocene (between 126,000 and 780,000 years ago). The fossil, designated RVH-1, is a parietal bone fragment with archaic features that differ from other remains dated to the same period. According to UCM researcher Daniel García Martínez: “This discovery provides information about the populations that inhabited the interior of the Iberian Peninsula during this period, positioning Ruidera in a privileged spot on the European map for the study of human evolution during the Middle Pleistocene”.
The discovery, published in the Journal of Human Evolution, was led by researchers from the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM) and the National Museum of Natural Sciences (MNCN-CSIC). The team also included the Catalan Institute of Human Paleoecology and Social Evolution (IPHES-CERCA), the National Research Center on Human Evolution (CENIEH), the Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM), the PATRICIA group at the University of Córdoba, alongside other national and international institutions.
RVH-1 is the first cranial remain recovered from this site and was discovered during the initial archaeological excavations of the First Settlers of the Upper Guadiana project (PPAG), which aims to reconstruct the biological, cultural, and environmental history of human populations inhabiting the upper Guadiana basin during the Pleistocene.
Over 200,000 Years Old
Determining the age of the fossil was one of the study’s main challenges. To achieve this, the team—working in scientific collaboration with experts from CENIEH—applied a dating strategy combining uranium series and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) techniques, analyzing both the fossil itself and the sediments in which it was found. The results indicate that RVH-1 is at least 200,000 years old, placing it at a decisive moment in European human evolution.
Anatomical analysis shows that the Ruidera parietal presents a rare combination of traits among European fossils of this era. Its morphology and thickness are particularly interesting because they retain characteristics considered archaic, also known as plesiomorphic. “It has a thick cranial structure, similar to morphologies associated with other skulls also considered archaic, such as Ceprano in Italy or Caune de l’Arago in the French Pyrenees,” explains García-Martínez.
This uniqueness demonstrates that hominin populations (the primate group containing modern humans and their closest fossil relatives) with unexpected characteristics—retained from ancestral lineages until relatively recent hundreds of thousands of years ago—still existed on the Iberian Peninsula during that era. "This finding supports the idea that human evolution in Europe was not a linear process, but rather a complex scenario where different populations with distinct evolutionary histories coexisted," highlights MNCN researcher Carlos Palancar.
A Site with Great Potential
The discovery is particularly valuable due to the scarcity of Middle Pleistocene human fossils from the interior of the Iberian Peninsula, a region traditionally underrepresented in the paleoanthropological record. "This discovery demonstrates that Ruidera holds enormous potential to help us understand who the human populations that inhabited southern Europe hundreds of thousands of years ago were and how they evolved," explains García-Martínez.
Although the site was located over a decade ago, systematic excavations began in 2023. To date, animal fossils, abundant lithic tools, and numerous human remains have been recovered, which could make Ruidera a site that reshapes our understanding of human evolution on the Iberian Peninsula. "This fossil is just the tip of the iceberg. Ruidera still has a lot to tell us about human evolution in Europe, and we are convinced it will continue to yield findings of great scientific relevance," concludes Sara Díaz Pérez from the University of Wrocław (Poland).
Bibliographic Reference
García-Martínez, D., Buenestado Ruiz, C., Díaz Pérez, S., Bastir, M., Bermejo Albarrán, L., Campaña, I., Cambra-Moo, O., Cifuentes-Alcobendas, G., del Val, M., Duval, M., D'Angelo del Campo, M.D., Fernández Cascón, B., Fidalgo, D., García Campos, C., Gascó-Lluna, F., González-Martín, A., Huguet, R., Modesto-Mata, M., Moreno, D., Moya-Maleno, P.R., Pons-Branchu, E., Richard, M., Rosas, A., Sanz-Henche, P., Torres-Medina, T., Zhao, J.-x., Palancar, C. A. (2026). The first human fossil from the Ruidera site (Castilla-La Mancha, Spain): A partial parietal and its implications for Middle Pleistocene hominin variability in Southern Europe. Journal of Human Evolution. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2026.103866