Fossilised finger points to an earlier African exodus
THE belief that our human ancestors left Africa 65,000 years ago to colonise the world has been turned on its head – by a 3cm finger bone.
The chance discovery of an 85,000year-old middle finger in the desert at Al Wusta in Saudi Arabia shows humans left Africa 20,000 years earlier than is widely accepted.
It is said to be the oldest found outside Africa and the Levant, which is now Israel, Palestine and Lebanon.
While homo sapien bones 177,000 years old have been found in Israel, there was little evidence of expansion beyond the coast. The fossilised finger shows that rather than following the coast as they left Africa, humans ventured into the interior of what is now Saudi Arabia, which was then a green paradise dotted by lakes.
Dr Huw Groucutt, of Oxford University, whose study is published in Nature Ecology & Evolution, said his finding ‘casts doubt on long-held views that early dispersals out of Africa were unsuccessful’.
He added: ‘This for the first time shows members of our species colonised a region of southwest Asia and were not restricted to the Levant.’