Chinese challenge to 'out of Africa' theory

New Scientist ^ | 11/03/09 | Phil McKenna

[TigerLikesRooster]

Chinese challenge to 'out of Africa' theory

00:01 03 November 2009 by Phil McKenna

The discovery of an early human fossil in southern China may challenge the commonly held idea that modern humans originated out of Africa.

Jin Changzhu and colleagues of the Institute of Vertebrate Palaeontology and Palaeoanthropology in Beijing, announced to Chinese media last week that they have uncovered a 110,000-year-old putative Homo sapiens jawbone from a cave in southern China's Guangxi province.

[blam]

Thanks, I’ve done that. I’m yDNA=R1b1b2 and mtDNA=V.

[mad_as_he$$]

Interesting. Did you have any surprises?

[blam]

"Interesting. Did you have any surprises? "

Yes.

* My mother is in haplogroup 'V' as are 52% of the Skolt Sami , Finland reindeer herders. (They don't like to be called Laplanders)

* I am a Dane from Ireland...my yDNA (R1b1b2) arrived in Ireland way back when, possibly as a Viking.

* Disappointed my liberal sister who wanted some much for us to have some Black blood and if not that, American Indian. (She's an idiot!)

[SunkenCiv]

Ooooooh! I agree with blam! And I’m gonna post it... actually, there may have been something similar, but due to the headline it didn’t make as much of an impression on your sometimes-inattentive GGG pingmeister. :’)

[SunkenCiv]

Here's one of my common reprises:

The Scars of Evolution:
What Our Bodies Tell Us
About Human Origins
by Elaine Morgan

"The most remarkable aspect of Todaro's discovery emerged when he examined Homo Sapiens for the 'baboon marker'. It was not there... Todaro drew one firm conclusion. 'The ancestors of man did not develop in a geographical area where they would have been in contact with the baboon. I would argue that the data we are presenting imply a non-African origin of man millions of years ago.'"

Well, okay, you talked me into a bunch more. ;') Kind remarks will take you far. But I'll put it in the next message so I don't choke your screen. :')

[SunkenCiv]

Tiny Fossil Animal
May Link Lower Primates
With Humans
by John Noble Wilford
March 16, 2000

Fossil bones of an animal no bigger than a shrew and weighing less than an ounce have been identified as belonging to the earliest known relative in the primate lineage that led to monkeys, apes and humans. The wee animal lived 45 million years ago in a humid rain forest in what is now China... scatterings of fossils point to the earliest primates of any kind appearing about 55 million years ago, mainly in Asia... although the more immediate human forebears arose in Africa, their earliest primate ancestors appeared to come from Asia. Somehow primates then migrated to Africa. Dr. MacPhee said the Euroasian origin of primates was now generally accepted by scientists, "thanks in part to Beard's work," but "why that should be is itself controversial now."

Monday, June 1, 2009, "Were our earliest hominid ancestors European?" by Bob Holmes

The face, jaw and teeth of a 12-million-year-old hominid named Anoiapithecus brevirostris. The fossil's presence in Spain suggests that hominids migrated from Europe into Africa before the evolution of modern humans (Image: National Academy of Sciences, PNAS)

Just 9-thousandths of a square inch in size, the teeth are about 54.5 million years old and suggest these early primates were no larger than modern dwarf lemurs weighing about 2 to 3 ounces...

Previous fossil evidence shows primates were living in North America, Europe and Asia at least 55 million years ago. But, until now, the fossil record of anthropoid primates has extended back only 45 million years...

In addition to stretching the primate timeline, the specimens represent a new genus as well as a new species of anthropoid, which the researchers have named Anthrasimias gujaratensis by drawing from the Greek word for "coal," Latin for "monkey" and the Indian State of Gujarat where the teeth were found.

"Anthrasimias may be the oldest anthropoid in the world," the PNAS report said -- "may" reflecting the fact that some scientists think slightly older fossils found in a Moroccan limestone deposit also could have been anthropoid, Kay said...

The teeth were dated by identifying microscopic marine plankton fossils of known age in nearby rock layers, he added...

Their PNAS report describes tooth structure differences that would separate Anthrasimias from two other ancient lines of primates whose remains have been found at the same level of the Vastan mine. Of the three lines, Williams and Kay believe only Anthrasimias's is part of the anthropoid lineage that evolved into modern monkeys, apes and humans...

"From the tooth size and structure we can say something about the animals' body weight and diet, because teeth have crests that are differentially developed depending on whether they ate primarily insects, leaves or fruit," he said. -- Little teeth suggest big jump in primate timeline

Early humans lived in northern China about 1.66 million years ago, according to research reported in the journal Nature this week. The finding suggests humans -- characterized by their making and use of stone tools -- inhabited upper Asia almost 340,000 years before previous estimates placed them there, surviving in a pretty hostile environment.

The research team, including Richard Potts of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History, reports the results of excavating four layers of sediments at Majuangou in north China. All the layers contained indisputable stone tools apparently made by early humans, known to researchers as "hominins." -- Out of Africa: Scientists find earliest evidence yet of human presence in Northeast Asia

and...

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The Link: Uncovering Our Earliest Ancestor by Colin Tudge

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[SunkenCiv]

Israeli Site Yields 750,000 Year Old Fire Evidence
AP-via Duluth-News Tribune | April 29, 2004 | Randolf E Schimd
Posted on 04/29/2004 1:32:24 PM PDT by me_newswire
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1126858/posts

Discovery of Fire Pushed Back 500,000 Years
foxnews
Posted on 10/28/2008 9:57:36 PM PDT by Goonch
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2118232/posts

[SunkenCiv]

• Super-Eruption: No Problem (Toba)
• Going East: New Genetic and Archaeological Perspectives on the Modern Human Colonization of Eurasia

[Mike Darancette]

The Chinese Homo Sapiens died out at the bottleneck and re- radiated back to China while the Hobbits survived in place? I’m assuming that the current day Chinese are genetically related to the rest of mankind and the bottleneck survivors. The Chinese could be mistaken too.

[blam]

"The Chinese Homo Sapiens died out at the bottleneck and re- radiated back to China while the Hobbits survived in place? I’m assuming that the current day Chinese are genetically related to the rest of mankind and the bottleneck survivors. The Chinese could be mistaken too."

I don't think the 'Hobbits' are Modern Humans. The guy (forgot his name)who discovered them think they closely resemble these folks:

Strangers In A New Land