The study of a fossil fragment, recovered some years ago by fishermen, has revealed that it belonged to a Neanderthal man. This is the first time we found this type of fossil in marine sediments.

The fossil is now on display at the museum in Leiden, Holland. It was recovered some years ago by an amateur paleontologist, having been back in the nets of a fishing boat, about 15 km off the coast of Zealand, the North Sea.

The study of the fragment was assigned to Jean-Jacques Hublin, of the Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. He was assisted by a team of scientists from the University of Leiden.

Together they were able to determine that it was a piece from the skull of a Neanderthal man. Le Nouvel Obs describes the technique used by scientists, who have a virtual overlay of the fragment found in the North Sea to the skull of a Neanderthal man from the South of France.

Noticing the perfect correlation between these two fossils, scientists have concluded that the fragment found near New Zealand belonged to a young man carnivore, characteristic of the Neanderthal era.

Even if they have not made a dating sediments from the North Sea or by analysis of collagen, the researchers were able to say that the fossil is between 40,000 and 100,000 years.

At that time, the North Sea was a vast plain, as confirmed by the analysis of animal bones found in the area. The discovery of a human fossil here on Earth is the first ever.