A jawbone found in Israel possibly sheds new light on human history

Migration story may be rewritten

A fossil found in Israel indicates modern humans may have left Africa at least 50,000 years — and as many as 100,000 years — earlier than previously thought, meaning that the story of our species may be more ancient and complex than anyone knew.

Scientists say that an ancient upper jawbone and associated stone tools could also mean that Homo sapiens — modern humans — arose in Africa far earlier than fossils now show. If confirmed, the find may rewrite the early migration story of our species and cause rethinking about how we evolved and interacted with now-extinct cousin species, such as Neanderthals.

“Whenthey start moving out of Africa and what geographical route they choose to do it are the two most important questions in recent human evolution,” said Tel Aviv University anthropologist Israel Hershkovitz, lead author of a study published Thursday in the journal Science. “This changes the whole concept of modern human evolution.”

“This would be the earliest modern human anyone has found outside of Africa, ever,” said John Hawks, a paleoanthropologist from the University of Wisconsin, Madison who was not involved in the study that provides fossil evidence lending support to genetic studies that have suggested modern humans moved from Africa far earlier than hadbeen suspected.

Rick Potts, a paleoanthroplogist and head of the human origins program at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, said the new study supports a growing body of fossil and genetic evidence that suggests our species made several short-lived forays out of Africa before ultimately dispersing around the globe starting roughly 70,000 years ago.

The jawbone, complete with seven intact teeth and a broken incisor, was found to be somewhere between 177,000and 194,000 years old.

Previously, the oldest fossils of modern humans found outside of Africa were somewhere from 90,000 to 120,000 years old, also in Israel. So given the range in both those estimates, the jawbone might be about 50,000to 100,000 years older.

The jaw was found in 2002 in the collapsed Misliya cave on the western slope of Mount Carmel. Researchers spent the last decade-and-a-half looking for more remains and other fossils before publishing their study. They say the jaw belonged to a young adult of unknown gender.

The Science paper suggests modern humans could have left Africa 220,000 years ago, with some of the authors saying maybe it was even earlier.