A Neanderthal trove in Madrid The Lozoya River Valley could help
clear up mysteries surrounding extinct species The Lozoya River
Valley, in the Madrid mountain range of Guadarrama, could easily
be called "Neanderthal Valley," says the paleontologist Juan
Luis Arsuaga. "It is protected by two strings of mountains, it
is rich in fauna, it is a privileged spot from an environmental
viewpoint, and it is ideal for the Neanderthal, given that it
provided the with good hunting grounds." This is not just a
hypothesis: scientists working on site in Pinilla del Valle,
near the reservoir, have already found nine Neanderthal teeth,
remains of bonfires and thousands of animal fossils, including
some from enormous aurochs (the ancestor of cattle, each the
length of two bulls), rhinoceros and fallow deer. The
Neanderthal is a human species that is well known and unknown at
the same time. It is well known because numerous vestiges have
been found from the time when they lived in Europe, between
200,000 and 30,000 years ago.