A group of archeologists have found an adult human tooth dating back around 560,000 years in southwestern France, in what researchers hailed as a "major discovery" 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.