The Ancient Human Species That Caused Their Own Extinction. Around 800,000 years ago, in what is now Spain, our ancient human cousin hunted and ate others of their kind, leaving the most compelling evidence of cannibalism in human history. This species, known as Homo antecessor, is thought to be a dead European offshoot of Homo erectus, which split from the Denisovan-Neanderthal-Sapiens lineage approximately 850,000 years ago. The world of anthropology regards the birth of the modern human as an excellent evolutionary leap, but this is not the case for Homo antecessor. In fact, Most anthropologists believe that this species is an evolutionary disaster. In our own lineage, It was as if a sudden spark ignited the human brain, but evidence suggests that this spark did not occur in the ancient human known as Homo antecessor. This flawed evolution may have contributed to their extinction. This is fascinating because of the mysteries and unanswered questions surrounding our ancient human history.
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