First evidence of humans outside Africa :: Kenya

Scientists say that they found the first evidence of a human presence outside of Africa.

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Ancient tools discovered in China suggest that primitive humans were in the region as early as 2.12 million years ago.

They are about 270,000 years older than the first previous evidence, which consists of stone bones and tools from Dmanisi in Georgia.

The research, by a Sino-British team, appears in the journal Nature.

The stone objects were discovered in Shangchen on a plateau in northern China

They include various types of stone tools built for various purposes. All show signs of being used.

Most were quartzite and quartz probably from the foothills of the Qinling Mountains, five to ten kilometers south of the excavation site.

But we do not know what human species made them.

Why is it important?

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Humans have left Africa several times during their history. People living outside of Africa, for example, have their origins in an exodus that occurred 60,000 years ago.

But there was no evidence of human occupation in Eurasia until the evidence of Dmanisi 1.8 million years ago.

Co-author Prof. Robin Dennell, of the University of Exeter, UK, said: "Our discovery means that it is necessary now to reconsider the moment when early humans have left Africa. "

Traditionally, Africa has been viewed as the engine of human evolution – where key species have emerged before spreading to the rest of the world.

However, some scientists have proposed a more important role in this story for Asia. With these new discoveries, some researchers will wonder to what extent human history continues in Asia.

Climate Change
In an article in Nature, the paleoanthropologist John Kappelman, who was not one of the authors of the new study, commented: "The trek of about 14,000 kilometers between l? Eastern Africa and East Asia represents a dramatic expansion.

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"The dispersal of hominids was probably facilitated by population increases as they settled in larger areas. new territories and occupied empty niches.

Some 80 artefacts have been found in fossil soils that have developed in a hot, humid climate. Another 16 tools were found in fossil soils from periods when it was colder and drier.

The discovery shows that the earliest forms of human beings survived on the Loess Plateau in northern China under various climatic conditions.

Dr. Kappelman, of the University of Texas at Austin, explains: "The dispersion of hominids probably occurred in the varying climates of the Pleistocene glaciation: a migration to high latitudes suggests Does it evolve behavioral adaptations to cold climates?

"Rather than maintain a continued occupation of the Loess Plateau, the population of hominids could have increased or decreased, depending on the climate."