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Earliest Human Remains Outside Africa Were Just Discovered in Israel
For decades, scientists have speculated about when exactly the bipedal apes known as Homo sapiens left Africa and moved out to conquer the world. That moment, after all, was a crucial step on the way to today’s human-dominated world. For many years, the consensus view among archaeologists placed the exodus at 60,000 years ago—some 150,000 years after the hominins first appeared.
But now, researchers in Israel have found a remarkably preserved jawbone they believe belongs to a Homo sapiens that was much, much older. The find, which they’ve dated to somewhere between 177,000 and 194,000 years, provides the most convincing proof yet that the old view of human migration needs some serious re-examination.
The new research, published today in Science [DOI: 10.1126/science.aap8369] [DX], builds on earlier evidence from other caves in the region that housed the bones of humans from 90,000 to 120,000 years ago. But this new discovery goes one step further: if verified, it would require reevaluating the whole history of human evolution—and possibly pushing it back by several hundred thousand years.
Also at Binghamton University, BBC, and The Guardian.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 26 2018, @08:29PM
DNA suggests that the neanderthals were good at visual tasks and probably a bit autistic. They were likely superior at solving puzzles. They could tolerate the cold. They had brains that would grow for longer amounts of time after birth.
On the other hand... They seem to have suffered from a lack of social ability. Speech was probably poor. They had shoulder joints that were not great for throwing spears. The females could not birth large heads.
So then alone comes the humanish creatures from Africa. Working as a group, they kick ass, then winter comes and they freeze their ass. After a bit of fucking to make hybrids and a bunch of death, we get the best of both groups. Neanderthal women were victims of this, with large babies getting stuck inside them.