Image courtesy of Torquay Museum

An ancient fragment of a maxilla in Torquay Museum, Devon, could be the oldest example from a modern human yet found in Europe. The bone, which has been in the museum for the past 80 years, was excavated by the Torquay Natural History Society in 1927 from Kent's Cavern, and has only three teeth.

The maxilla is currently the oldest dated fragment of a modern human in Britain and the second oldest in Europe. Radiocarbon dating had previously dated it to about 31,000 years ago, but now scientists have discovered that it is more than 6,000 years older than previously thought.

Dr Roger Jacobi of the British Museum, and Dr Tom Higham from the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit found that the jawbone had been strengthened by the addition of paper glue probably sometime soon after discovery, thus contaminating the specimen and making its current radiocarbon age of 31,000 years ago suspect.

Their research involved the radiocarbon dating of samples of animal bones from the sediments of the cave just above and below the area where the jawbone was found. The research indicated that this layer dated to between 37,000 and 40,000 years ago, making it much older than previously thought.

The jawbone was originally identified as an anatomically modern human by anatomist Sir Arthur Keith in the 1920s. But the new date puts Sir Keith's work in a new light. The result poses fresh questions because if the jaw is anatomically modern, from the Cro-Magnon period as Sir Keith believed, then these people spread across Europe reaching Britain far earlier than is currently thought.

If, however, Sir Keith was wrong and the jaw is from a Neanderthal, this will be the first direct evidence of Neanderthals on mainland Britain.

It is hoped that the issue will be resolved by extracting DNA from one of the teeth. The fossil is currently on display in Torquay Museum.