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In China, researchers want to have by far discovered the earliest evidence of early humans outside of Africa. In Shangchen (Shaanxi Province), they found nearly a hundred stone tools and animal bones in sedimentary layers dating back to 2.1 million years ago. years. At the age of 1.8 million years, the previous record holder was the Dmanissi site in Georgia, where – unlike Shangchen – human bones were also discovered. They are attributed to Homo erectus.
The current find shows that representatives of the genus Homo Africa had to leave Africa much earlier than expected, writes the team around Zhaoyu Zhu of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Robin Dennell of the English University of Exeter Journal "Nature". However, an independent expert evaluates the discovery with skepticism.
Doubts of Experts
That all the first humans come from Africa is considered safe. Hominin probably existed more than six million years ago, writes John Kappelman of the University of Texas at Austin in a commentary on Nature. For comparison, the first discoveries of Homo sapiens date from about 300 000 years ago and come from Morocco. According to current knowledge, modern humans left Africa about 100,000 years ago.
Other early humans, including the ancestors of the Neanderthals (Homo neanderthalensis), were already outside of Africa. The researchers badume that there are hundreds of thousands of years a whole spectrum of different human species in Africa and on other continents, which are now all extinct – at least once in a while. exception of the Homo sapiens
New discovery: 96 stone tools found
in China the researchers on the steep slopes of the Chinese loess plateau 96 stone tools. Among them, there were apparently several nachbehauene objects that were used to cut, scrape and drill, and larger stones, which were probably used as a hammer. Almost all of them are made of quartz or quartzite and probably come from the southern foothills of the Qin-Ling Mountains between five and ten kilometers away. In addition, researchers found bones of deer (Cervidae) and cattle (Bovidae).
Findings have been dated using paleomagnetism. The team compared the orientation of magnetic minerals with the anterior polarity of the Earth's magnetic field in the fundamental strata, which changes over the course of the Earth's history and even conversely to some intervals. Thus, these minerals retain the orientation of the Earth's magnetic field at a given moment. According to researchers, the most recent discoveries are about 1.3 million, the oldest 2.1 million years old. "This forces us to rethink the dating of the initial spread of the first hominids in the world," writes the team.
Commentator on "Nature" Kappelman finds dating convincing. The tools found are therefore similar to those in Africa, dating back to the same time. The anthropologist believes that even the users of newly discovered objects were representatives of the genus Homo. Remarkable from the point of view of the expert is the location in East of Asia – very far from Africa. Kappelman writes: "The journey of about 14,000 kilometers from East Africa to East Asia means an expansion of the living space into a dramatic dimension. "
The researcher doubts: The place and date raise questions
Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, which did not participate in the study, however, is cautious. "If this discovery is confirmed, it would be a sensation," he says. Because it's fallen into an era where even Homo erectus in Africa – the oldest discoveries are there 1.9 million years ago – according to the current state of knowledge clearly preceded. A little over a year ago, in Hublin, Hublin had unveiled the oldest discoveries of Homo sapiens.
"If you make extraordinary statements, you need extraordinary evidence," he says of this study. The location and date of the investigation raise issues, which have yet to be verified. On the one hand, it is not excluded on the site – extremely steep slopes – that younger objects have crept into older loess layers, for example through cracks and fissures. . "If you find a layer of artifacts, you have to expose them on a large surface and show that you can find a constant distribution.I do not see it here." Instead, the researchers had until here removed slopes only superficially.
In addition, paleomagnetic dating is prone to errors: it does not indicate absolute age, but only a certain orientation of the magnetic field. can not be determined with certainty. Nevertheless, the study is interesting, says Hublin. "If the allegation is proven, it would revolutionize our vision of the establishment of the world."
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