ANN ARBOR—University of Michigan researcher Josep M. Pares is part of a team that has discovered the oldest known remains of human ancestors in Western Europe.

The find shows that members of the genus Homo, to which modern humans belong, colonized the region much earlier than previously believed. Details of the discovery were published in the March 27 issue of the journal Nature.

The fossil?a small piece of jawbone with a few teeth?was found last year in a cave in the mountains of northern Spain, along with primitive stone tools and bones of animals that appear to have been butchered. The team, led by Spanish researchers Juan Luis Arsuaga, Jos