A human tooth from about 560,000 years ago has been discovered by two students in a famous prehistoric cave in south-western France. Archeologists say the discovery is rare considering that period in Europe and is the oldest human body part ever discovered in the country.

The students discovered the tooth last week during excavations at Tautavel, one of Europe's most important prehistoric sites.

It’s a major discovery, said palaeoanthropologist Tony Chevalier, researcher at Tautavel's archaeological laboratory. According to Chevalier, the adult tooth will prove to be a great help for researchers to gain insight into history of human beings as very few oldest human fossils are available for such researches.

What researchers have found in abundance on the site so far include prehistoric tools and bones from animals, especially horses, reindeers and buffaloes.

“We believe these men have lived for a long time in the cave or have regularly come back into it. We also know that the area was quite cold at the time. It was a steppe, with no trees. There had to be some long periods with snow”, said Chevalier.

Excavations have been taking place at the cave for about 50 years, which is well-known for the discovery of 450,000 human skull in the early 1970s.

Several dating processes helped in determining the age of the tooth, said Christian Perrenoud, a geologist and archaeologist who has been director of Tautavel's excavations for nine years.

Perrenoud said chances are high that his team will come up with more human fossils from this period on the site.