Western Europe's earliest known mule died 2,700 years ago — and it was buried with a partially cremated woman

A series of mule skull fragments are overlaid on a white background with a metal ruler at the bottom of the image measuring a jawbone.

Around 2,700 years ago, a partially cremated woman was buried with a mule — the oldest remains of the hybrid animal ever found in Western Europe, a new study reveals.

The mule and woman were interred inside an ancient rock-lined pit that served as a silo at the archaeological site of Hort d'en Grimau in northeastern Spain. Although the skeletons were discovered in 1986, genetic testing recently identified one set of remains as a mule.