While touring his parents' recently renovated European home, a dentist spotted something unsettling. Embedded in a travertine floor tile along the hallway leading to the terrace was what appeared to be a human jawbone. Sliced diagonally, the tile revealed a cross-section of several teeth. Uncertain of the proper course of action, the dentist turned to Reddit, where the discovery ignited a frenzy of online interest, ranging from enthusiastic curiosity to sheer disgust.
The discovery has captured the attention of an international team of scientists who are eager to examine the fossil. They believe it could belong to an extinct human ancestor.
Found a mandible in the travertin floor at my parents house
byu/Kidipadeli75 infossils
"If it turns out to be a fossil hominin, which I think it is, it should be studied and placed in a museum," John Kappelman, an anthropology professor at the University of Texas at Austin who specializes in hominid and hominin origins and evolution, said in an email.
Travertine, a type of limestone commonly used in construction due to its aesthetic appeal and longevity, often forms near mineral springs and can contain fossilized remnants of past life. While plant, algae, and even animal fossils like those of rhinos and giraffes are occasionally found in travertine, human remains are exceptionally rare, as noted by University of Wisconsin paleoanthropologist John Hawks, Forbes reported.
In a blog post titled "How Many Bathrooms Have Neanderthals in the Tile?" Dr. Hawks highlights the uncommon nature of this particular discovery.
"I expect there will be many twists and turns in the story of this jawbone," Mr Hawks wrote. "With some teeth preserved and abundant surrounding rock, I expect that specialists will be able to learn a great deal about the life of this individual and when he or she lived."
The European dentist, who specialises in dental implants, told Forbes that he immediately knew he wasn't just looking at stone tile's natural pattern variations when he saw several teeth staring up at him.
"From my dentist's point of view I had no doubt it was some kind of human," he told Forbes. "The teeth distribution and size of the mandible is characteristic. Also, the width of the cortex is specific to ancient humans."
"I don't think it is Jimmy Hoffa," the dentist joked in a follow-up to his original Reddit post. He said he prefers not to reveal his name, or his parents' location, to protect the family's privacy.
When the dentist spotted a jawbone as part of his parents' home upgrade, he was surprised for a different reason.
"It is very, very unusual to find vertebrate fossils in processed travertine tile, and hominin fossils 100 times more so," Kappelman said. "We have only a handful."
Mr Kappelman was part of a team that observed the earliest evidence of tuberculosis etched on 500,000-year-old human skeletal remains discovered by factory workers in Turkey cutting travertine tile for commercial use. The scientists published the findings of their research in 2007 in The American Journal of Physical Anthropology.
