Palaeontology

Ancient human teeth reveal early migration

By T.K. Randall
October 15, 2015 ·  34 comments

Humans arrived in Asia much earlier than thought. Image Credit: Charles R. Knight The remarkable find, which pre-dates man's migration from Africa by 20,000 years, has shaken up the currently accepted timeline and suggests that homo sapiens arrived in Asia far earlier than previously believed.

"It was very clear to us that these teeth belonged to modern humans," said anthropologist María Martinón-Torres from the University College London.

"We need to re-think our models. Maybe there was more than one Out of Africa migration."While some modern humans were thought to have reached the Eastern Mediterranean as early as 12,000 years ago it was generally believed that this branch of the species had died out long ago.

The new discovery may mean that they survived or it could be that a different group of humans migrated at a much earlier time than the evidence up until now has suggested.

Either way the history books are likely to be seeing a significant rewrite in the coming months.

Source: Telegraph | Comments (34)

Tags: China, Asia, Humans