Cranium 5 "Miguelón"

One of the most complete and best preserved cranium fossils worldwide. Cranium 5 was given the nickname Miguelón because it was found in 1992 when Miguel Indurain was about to win the Tour de France. If you look at Miguelón's teeth, you can see how the third tooth on the right, the premolar, is broken in half, and you can even see that the top of this tooth has grown. This tells us that Miguelón suffered a blow that fractured his tooth and caused a major infection that could have entered his bloodstream. This infection would have caused him pain and brought on a fever that would prevent him from hunting and even eating or chewing food, so it was likely that he would have starved. In this particular case, we know that this did not happen because the tooth regrowth occurred after the break and this takes time to happen, so Miguelón survived despite the pain because the rest of the group was responsible for his care and provided him with already chewed food.

Age: 500.000 years
Species: Homo heidelbergensis
Location: Sima de los Huesos. Atapuerca sites. Burgos. Spain. Year 1992.