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Stone tools unearthed in China advance the presence of human ancestors in Asia around 200 millennia
Zhaoyu Zhu shows a large core of quartzite rock found in the Loess Plateau in China.
Paris: The remains of roughly crafted stone tools uncovered in China advance the presence of human ancestors in Asia from about 200 millennia to 2.1 million years ago, said scientists Wednesday
. means that the hominids – the group of humans and our extinct ancestor species – left Africa earlier than archaeologists have been able to demonstrate it so far, a team reported in the scientific journal Nature .
our extinct ancestor species, appeared in Africa more than six million years ago and left the continent in several migratory waves about two million years ago: // t. – AFP News Agency (@AFP) July 11, 2018
"Our discovery means that it is now necessary to reconsider the moment when the first humans left the US. Africa, "said co-author of the Robin Dennell study from the Exeter University in England.
believed to have emerged in Africa more than six million years ago. They left the continent in several migratory waves beginning about two million years ago.
The first migrants were probably members of the species Homo erectu s (right man) or Homo ergaster (working man) – extinct predecessors of our own group, Homo sapiens (wise man), who emerged about 300,000 years ago.
The oldest known African fossil to a member of the Homo family is a jawbone of 2.8 million years old from Ethiopia.
Previously, the earliest evidence of hominids in Asia came from Georgia in the form of fossil skeletal fragments and dated artifacts between 1.77
] Watertight
There have been other unproven claims for even older fossil finds, according to the study's authors.
The latest discovery of 96 stone tools, mainly splinters made with rudimentary hammers and probably used to cut meat and other foods, was extracted from 17 layers of sediment in the plateau. Loess in the south of China.
The youngest layer was 1.26 million years old and the oldest 2.12 million years old. 19659002] There was no hominin bone.
Dennell and a team used a field of science known as "paleomagnetism" to date the sediment layers. These form when dust or mud settles before being covered with a new layer of soil.
Any artifact found in a diaper would be the same age as the surrounding ground.
Paleomagnetism is based on the Earth's magnetic field, whose historical dates are well known to scientists.
Dennell and a team measured the magnetic properties of minerals in soil layers to determine when they were deposited
dated tools, of a type known to have been manufactured by Homo species in Africa for at least 3.3 million years.
The paper offers strong evidence for a hominin presence in Asia farther than we thought, Dennell said
"There may be older evidence in places like the United States. India and Pakistan, but up to here … the evidence is not convincing enough to convince most researchers, "he told AFP. ] "With this type of claim, for an early human presence in a region, the evidence must be absolutely waterproof and bombproof."
Who manufactured the tools?
"Probably an early form of our own kind Homo ]," said Dennell, although further research is needed to identify the species.
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