Human ancestors left Africa 220,000 years ago?
A fossilized jawbone recently found in Israel suggests that modern humans may have left Africa 100,000 years earlier than previously thought.
The oldest fossilized upper jawbone believed to date has been found in Israel - Photo: AP
According to AP news agency, in a scientific report published in the journalScienceThe fossil jawbone and accompanying stone tools suggest that these people likelyHomo sapienThe first (modern) humans appeared in Africa much earlier than long-standing hypotheses about prehistoric humans.
New scientific evidence may also lead scientists to rethink how modern humans evolved and interacted with other, now extinct, prehistoric human groups, such as Homo sapiens.Neanderthal.
"When they (modern humans) started to leave Africa and what geographical routes they chose to travel are the two most important questions for human evolution," said Tel Aviv University anthropologist Hershkovitz, who led the study.
The newly discovered fossilized upper jaw still has many teeth intact. According to scientists, it is about 177,000-194,000 years old.
Previously, the oldest fossils of modern humans found outside Africa were dated to 90,000-120,000 years old, also in Israel.
Therefore, based on the dating of the latest jawbone fossil, it can be seen that its age is 50,000-100,000 years earlier than previously found fossils.
The recently published scientific report is the result of a thorough research project conducted over the past 10 years.
In 2002 this fossilized maxilla was found in a collapsed Misliya cave on the western slope of Mount Carmel.
It then took scientists more than 15 years to search for the remaining fossils and other fossils before announcing it.
According to scientists, this fossilized jawbone belongs to a young adult but the gender is unknown.
The scientific paper suggests that modern humans likely left Africa around 220,000 years ago. Some authors have proposed an even earlier date.
The reason for the earlier proposal is because in the cave where the fossil jawbone was found, they also discovered about 60,000 types of flint tools, most of which had sharp blades or pointed tips, some of which were about 250,000 years old.
"Now we have to write a different story. Humans have been on the move," said study co-author Mina Weinstein-Evron.
Although both Weinstein-Evron and Hershkovitz argue that these tools could only have been created by humans,Homo sapienartifacts, however, some other experts reject the hypothesis, saying that they are most likely just tools made by humans.Neanderthalor another prehistoric human species that was a sibling of modern humans.