The early hominin species found in Spain and considered one of the first to inhabit Europe is Homo antecessor.
Fossils of Homo antecessor were discovered in 1994 in the Gran Dolina cave of the Atapuerca archaeological site in northern Spain. The species was formally described in 1997, and its remains date mainly to the Early Pleistocene, roughly 1.2 to 0.8 million years ago. The name antecessor comes from Latin for “pioneer” or “early settler.”
Researchers originally proposed Homo antecessor as the first human species to colonize Europe, although later discoveries show that hominins may have reached parts of Europe even earlier. Stone tools and fossils from other sites complicate the exact identity of Europe’s earliest inhabitants. Homo antecessor is therefore best described as one of the earliest well-documented hominins in Western Europe.
It is often confused with Homo erectus or Homo heidelbergensis, partly because scientists continue to debate its evolutionary relationships. Some researchers have suggested it may be close to the common ancestry of modern humans and Neanderthals.