Paleontologists Fleshing Out Spain’s Prehistoric Past

With the zeal of a crusader, Jorge Maria Rivero began digging months ago in a cave in north central Spain, intent on finding evidence of his ancestors--and yours.

The amateur paleontologist may have hit pay dirt in May in the cave near this medieval town when he unearthed a human skull he says exhibits characteristics of both prehistoric and modern man.

The skull, whose significance has yet to be determined by experts, is the latest in a recent series of discoveries of prehistoric remains in Spain.

The findings have kindled speculation that much more than previously thought remains of the dinosaurs and primitive humans who once roamed the Iberian peninsula.

Coincidentally, Spain’s maturing scientific community is finally able to excavate sites that long lay fallow for lack of money or adequate training.

“Spain is rich in deposits, and a lot remains to be uncovered. It hasn’t been excavated as intensively as other countries,” said Jose Luis Arsuaga, a professor of paleontology at Madrid’s Complutense University, who last year found three 300,000-year-old human skulls near Burgos in north central Spain.

Arsuaga and his colleagues published a study of the skulls in the April 8 issue of Nature, showcasing both Spain’s potential as a source of prehistoric remains and Spanish scientific talent.

Rivero, who believes that early man evolved on the Iberian peninsula, not in Africa, has sent a bone sample from the skull he found to the Miguel Crusafont Institute near Barcelona for testing.

“I’m not searching for treasure, I’m looking for the origin of man,” he said.

Just this year, scientists also dug up the bones of a 200,000-year-old mammoth, footprints of various mammals thought to date back 20 million years and puzzling bones from an unidentified species of dinosaur.

“I’ve been at this for 40 years, and I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Eudald Carbonell, a professor of prehistory at Tarragona’s Rovira y Virgili University, referring to the rash of discoveries. Carbonell worked with Arsuaga excavating the skulls and other bones.

An enterprising tour operator in the area is offering a package weekend including an hour in Roman baths, all the Rioja wine you can drink and a three-hour search for bones and fossils along the “route of the dinosaurs.”

Enrique de Alvaro, an archeologist in the Culture Ministry, said Spanish scientists long suffered for lack of top-flight, post-graduate education and money to support their research and were 20 years behind the United States and France.

Only 10 years ago, Spanish paleontologists were embarrassed when a bone fragment hailed as a piece of prehistoric human skull turned out to be from an ancient ass.

But thanks to growing sophistication and economic well-being, Spain has been able to increase funding for scientific research about 15% a year and has sent a generation of students abroad for post-graduate study.

Recent discoveries are the product of such investments, De Alvaro said.

“The emphasis now is on excavating fewer sites but doing them well,” he said.

International cooperation has played an important role in this development, since scientists from around Europe and the United States collaborate with Spaniards on various projects.

It is often a fruitful exchange. Foreign researchers get the chance to study interesting sites, while Spanish investigators can share their colleagues’ expertise and--sometimes more important--the funding they bring.

“It seems to be a happy marriage,” said William Farrand, a geologist at the University of Michigan and director of the university’s Exhibit Museum.

“The central part of Spain has not been given a lot of attention,” said Farrand, who is familiar with the Burgos site. “There’s good reason to think that the Iberian peninsula, including Portugal, should have some interesting prehistoric sites.”

Investigators cite several reasons for Spain’s wealth of remains. The climate has been temperate in the Iberian peninsula for millions of years; the region was hospitable to life when ice covered much of the rest of Europe.

Numerous caves also offered animals and primitive humans shelter and helped preserve their bones after death.

Coincidentally, the arid climate of central Spain also discouraged dense population that would have led to the destruction of archeological sites.