Catalan researchers believe the new finds at the Gran Dolina cave in Burgos, northern Spain, shows that distant Homo Sapiens ancestors 'processed' both adults and children

New cave fossils have uncovered the grisly habits of a distant human ancestor, revealing that they cannibalised both adult and child members of their own communities.

Researchers from the Catalan Institute of Human Paleoecology and Social Evolution (IPHES) exploring the Gran Dolina cave at the Archaeological Site of Atapuerca in Burgos, northern Spain, recovered two dozen bones and teeth during a recent excavation. The bones, the institute said in a statement, included skull, spine, arm and leg bone fragments, and three teeth from the long extinct distant human ancestor Homo Antecessor.

The institute said in its statement that the Spanish bone trove suggests that particular Antecessor group, which lived between 770,000 and 1.2 million years ago, had actively cannibalised one another.

Several of the Antecessor bone fragments, the researchers said, had distinct cut marks from stone tools, indicating they had flesh scraped from them by the primitive implements. Previous bone finds at the site that came from young children also had these marks, with the new discovery on adult remains suggesting cannibalism was carried out on both older and younger members of the group.

The cluster of bones also indicated that between 13 to 15 people inhabited the cave, a larger number of people than was previously believed.

With the new discovery, researchers have said they have built a better picture of daily life and social structure among the ancient hominid species, carrying on vital work that has continued for decades. They returned to the cave's Aurora layer, where the first fossils were discovered in the 1990s, and found the new remains almost immediately.

Among the significant new collection is the first ulna, a forearm bone, ever discovered at the site, along with fragments of a tibia, femur and humerus.

Many of them were fragmented, but will still help archaeologists understand the ancient community that lived at the site so long ago. They build on previous finds at the site dating back 850,000 years, with an initial chunk of neck bone discovered in 2025 pointing towards Antecessor's cannibalistic habits.

Researchers when the find was announced last year on July 24 that signs of ancient humans butchering one another have been found at the site for decades.

The find, Palmira Saladie, an archaeologist and lead coordinator at IPHES, said, indicated children were "processed like any other prey". The child to which the bone belonged was aged between two and four years old, and had been decapitated. The researcher added she was almost certain that the child was eaten after it was killed.

Many other bones, discovered with the remains of nine other individuals, also displayed cut marks and fractures have argued were made to reach marrow inside.

Ms Saladie said following this year's discovery that the new discoveries represent a turning point in her team's study of the site, in which cannibalism represents a relatively small focus. She said: "Until now, we had mainly infant and juvenile remains, which conditioned the interpretation of the set.

"The appearance of more adult individuals, some of which also present cut marks, allows us to demonstrate that cannibalism did not exclusively affect the youngest.

"But, above all, it offers us a much more representative population to understand the biology, demography and behavior of Homo antecessor." IPHES arcaeologist Andreu Olle added: "The increase in the number of individuals, and especially the addition of more adults, allows us to begin understanding this population from a much more complete perspective than ever before."

Human remains aren't the only artefacts uncovered at Gran Dolina, with a series of stone tools fashioned from flint, quartz and sandstone also found. Additional bones from animals like hyenas, deer, beavers, horses and rhinos were also discovered there.