Researchers unearthed a partial
jawbone bearing seven teeth in a cave in Israel representing what scientists
are
calling the oldest-known Homo sapiens remains outside Africa.
This, according to them, showed
that “our species” trekked out of that continent far earlier than previously
known.
Researchers announced the
discovery of the fossil estimated as 177,000 to 194,000 years old, and said the
teeth bore telltale traits of Homo sapiens not present in close human relatives
alive at the time including Neanderthals.
The fossil of the left part of
the upper jaw of a young adult — the person’s sex remains unclear — came from
Misliya Cave on Mount Carmel’s western slopes about 12 km south of Haifa.
Also found inside the large
collapsed cave, once inhabited by humans, were blades and other stone tools
that were sophisticated for the time, several hearths and burned animal bones.
Homo sapiens first appeared in
Africa, with the earliest-known fossils roughly 300,000 years old.
A key milestone was when our
species first ventured out of Africa en route to populating the far corners of
the globe.
Until now, the oldest Homo
sapiens fossils outside Africa had come from two other cave sites in Israel,
including one also on Mount Carmel, about 90,000 to 120,000 years old.
Tel Aviv University paleoanthropologist
Israel Hershkovitz, who led the study, said the new discovery supports the idea
that humans migrated out of Africa through a northern route, the Nile valley
and the eastern Mediterranean coast, and not a southern route across the Bab
al-Mandeb strait, the southern coast of Saudi Arabia, the Indian subcontinent
and East Asia.
“This is an exciting discovery
that confirms other suggestions of an earlier migration out of Africa,” added
paleoanthropologist Rolf Quam of Binghamton University in New York, a co-author
of the study published in the journal Science.
“Now we finally have fossil
evidence of this migration, in addition to inferences drawn from ancient DNA
studies and archaeological sites,” Quam said, referring to genetic research
suggesting a migration from Africa at least 220,000 years ago and probably
earlier.
Hershkovitz said he believes Homo
sapiens may have originated some 500,000 years ago.
Quam said the Misliya humans were
likely nomadic, moving around the landscape following the movements of prey
species or according to the seasons of the year.
“They were capable hunters of
large-game species including wild cattle, deer and gazelles.
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