Ancient Mystery Deepens: Fossil Found Outside Africa Challenges Human Origins Timeline
The ramifications here would indicate human migration out of Africa occurred much earlier than previously thought.
Katerina Harvati, Eberhard Karls University of TübingenThe Apidima 1 fossil was found to be at least 210,000 years old, predating the previously oldest human fossil found outside of Africa by over 160,000 years.
All humans who have ancestry outside of Africa descend from one group of Homo sapiens who emigrated 70,000 years ago. But that wasn’t the first human migration out of Africa.
In recent years, scientists have uncovered fossils in Israel and elsewhere that are much older than 70,000 years — like a 180,000-year-old jaw bone found last year. These came from what scientists believe were earlier, failed migrations. Perhaps humans were overtaken by Neanderthals, or suffered a natural disaster.
But this skull fragment is the oldest human fossil found outside of Africa — and four times older than the previous record-holder for the oldest fossil in Europe, which dated back to 45,000 years ago.
For the director of paleoanthropology at the University of Tübingen, Katerina Harvati, this find clears the proverbial board: “Our results indicate that an early dispersal of Homo sapiens out of Africa occurred earlier than previously believed, before 200,000 years ago,” she said. “We’re seeing evidence for human dispersals that are not just limited to one major exodus out of Africa.”
Not everyone in Harvati’s field is convinced of the data here, however. Some experts seem unwilling to accept this new theory, as it would wipe away decades of research. The main counterpoint is that this skull is unlikely to belong to an early Homo sapiens species, and probably belongs to a Neanderthal.
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