Part of an ancient human skull has been recovered from the North Sea in an area described as a drowned Stone Age hunting ground.

The bone fragment is believed to belong to a late Neanderthal man and has been dated at around 60,000 years old.

It is the first time that an ancient human fossil has been found below the sea. Its discovery is likely to intensify scientific interest in the area, known as the Zeeland Ridges, where the skull was buried.

Previously, stone tools typical of late Neanderthals had been discovered in the North Sea. In 2008, 28 flint axes were found eight miles off the coast of Great Yarmouth.

But until now the fossil record had remained blank. “We’ve been waiting for this for a long time,” said Professor Chris Stringer, a human origins researcher at the Natural History Museum in London, who is involved in the study.

The find offers new support for the theory that Britain was recolonised by ancient humans from continental Europe after a 100,000-year period when the island was uninhabited. According to archaeologists writing in the Journal of Human Evolution, the skull’s owner may have belonged to one of the first groups to return to Britain, when a drop in sea levels made it possible to cross the North Sea by land.

The skull fragment was not in good enough condition to be dated using carbon dating, which could provide a more precise estimate of its age, but its shape corresponds closely to those of other Neanderthal skulls aged at 50,000-60,000 years.

The landscape at the time would have been one of wide river valleys, flood plains and lakes, populated by large herds of herbivores. An analysis of the skull indicates that its owner had a diet dominated by meat, suggesting that he lived as a hunter.

The possibility that the fragment belongs to one of our own predecessors has been essentially ruled out. By carrying out statistical comparisons with other entire skull specimens, it was established that it was 7,000 times more likely to belong to a Neanderthal than to a modern human ancestor.

The fragment has a strong brow ridge, a characteristic Neanderthal trait, and a small lesion, likely to have been caused by disease.

Archaeologists are describing the find as a significant missing piece in the story of the early human occupation of Britain. “It’s a very important find that people will be talking about,” said Simon Fitch, a North Sea palaeontologist at the University of Birmingham.

Mr Fitch agrees that the fossil provides strong evidence for the theory that Neanderthals crossed the land beneath the North Sea to return to Britain. The skull was first noticed by a Dutch amateur palaeontologist looking through a consignment of shellfish landed at the port of Irseke, in the south of Holland. Fossils from mammals, such as woolly mammoths, horses and rhinoceroses, frequently turn up in dredging or trawling operations by the construction and fishing industry. The collector has given the fossil indefinitely to the National Museum of Antiquities, in Leiden.

Scientists hope that the find will highlight the importance of legislating to allow scientists priority access to fossils.Most from the North Sea are recovered through commercial dredging activities, meaning scientists often find themselves at the end of the food chain. “Most of what’s found ends up on eBay,” said Mr Fitch.

Scientists from Belgium, Holland and Britain are working to set up a joint international research program, which would create more opportunities to explore the seabed themselves. The Government is also in talks with Belgium and Holland about how legislation could be improved.

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