This May Be The Oldest Fragment of Modern Humans in Europe, Or Something Even Rarer - ScienceAlert

This, and the archaic shape of the bone, led scientists to the conclusion that Banyoles in fact belonged to a Neanderthal.

"The mandible has been studied throughout the past century and was long considered to be a Neandertal based on its age and location, and the fact that it lacks one of the diagnostic features of Homo sapiens: a chin," says palaeoanthropologist Brian Keeling of Binghamton University in the US.

"Banyoles shared no distinct Neanderthal traits and did not overlap with Neanderthals in its overall shape.".

Since a chin is considered a defining feature of Homo sapiens compared to other archaic humans, this presented a problem.

Since Banyoles doesn't have Neanderthal features, the team concluded that its strange shape is unlikely to be because the individual was a hybrid.