TOULOUSE: A 16-year-old French volunteer archaeologist has found an adult tooth dating back around 560,000 years in southwestern France, in what researchers hailed as a "major discovery" on Tuesday. "A large adult tooth -- we can't say if it was from a male or female -- was found during excavations of soil we know to be between 550,000 and 580,000 years old, because we used different dating methods," paleoanthropologist Amelie Viallet told AFP.

"This is a major discovery because we have very few human fossils from this period in Europe," she said. The tooth was found in the Arago cave near the village of Tautavel, one of the world's most important prehistoric sites which has been excavated for about 50 years. Volunteer Camille, 16, was working with another young archaeologist when she found the tooth last Thursday. The owner of the tooth lived during a cold, dry and windy period.