Early humans must have taken care of this elderly member of their group, providing some of the first evidence of compassion.
A prehistoric pelvis, nicknamed “Elvis,” and other fossilized bones are what’s left of the world’s first known elderly human with clear signs of aging and impairment, according to a paper in the latest Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The remains, which date back to 500,000 years ago, also represent the earliest post-cranial evidence for an aged individual in the human fossil record.
The elderly fellow, who lived in Spain, was a member of the species Homo heidelbergensis, a type of ancient human believed by some to be exclusive to Europe and ancestral only to Neanderthals.