Summary The tooth was found at one of the world's most important prehistoric sites in Tautavel.
TOULOUSE (AFP) - A 16-year-old French volunteer archaeologist has found an adult tooth dating back around 560,000 years in southwestern France, in what researchers hailed as a "major discovery" Tuesday.
"A large adult tooth -- we can t say if it was from a male or female -- was found during excavations of soil we know to be between 550,000 and 580,000 years old, because we used different dating methods," paleoanthropologist Amelie Viallet told AFP.
"This is a major discovery because we have very few human fossils from this period in Europe," she said.
The tooth was found at one of the world s most important prehistoric sites in Tautavel, which has been excavated for about 50 years.
It is also the site of the discovery of fossils belonging to Tautavel Man, a species that lived an estimated 450,000 years ago.
Volunteer Camille, 16, was working with another young archaeologist when she found the tooth.
