Every now and then there ’s a Modern objet d’art of grounds that shakes up what we thought we make out about the source of our metal money . Take , for example , the late excitement over theEuropean tooth shard , which as one palaeontologist toldNational Geographicis in all probability " much bustle about nothing " . The latest find to puzzle researchers is a260,000 - year - oldskull , known as the Dali skull , that looks unusually similar to the early known remains ofHomo sapiens .
The problem is that the fossil is not where we would look it to be . archaeologist have unearthed like cadaver in Morocco , but this particular skull was found in Shaanxi , a province in northwesterly China . The implication being that modern human beings did not only develop from tribe in Africa but from human population elsewhere .
The current consensus on human evolution is thatHomo sapiensoriginatedin Africa around 200,000 years ago . Available archeological grounds suggests that anyone who does not have pure African ancestry fall from one singleHomo sapienpopulation ( and maybea handful of Neanderthals ) that left Africa sometime in the past 120,000 twelvemonth .
When researcher let on the Dali skull , in 1978 , they believed it go to another human species , Homo erectus . This especial hominin lived between 2 million and 100,000 ( mayhap 50,000 ) years ago in share of Africa , Asia , and Europe . Like us , they walk upright and had elongate limb .
By 1981 , Xinzhi Wu from the Chinese Academy of Sciences , had noted an overwhelming issue of similarities between the Dali skull and those of modern world . He conclude there must be at least some share DNA betweenHomo sapiensandHomo erectus .
That was more than 30 years ago and at the metre his determination were push aside . Now , Wu and colleague Sheela Athreya , an associate prof of anthropology at Texas A&M University , are take another look at the skull .
“ If we ’d found only the Moroccan skulls , and not the Dali skull , it would make sense to keep believing all innovative humans evolved in Africa , ” Athreya toldNew Scientist . “ But the similarities show that early modern humankind may not have been genetically isolated from other parts of the world , like what we know today as China . "
In fact , the new research suggests that many of the characteristic we have today could have originated in East Asia , go far in Africa at a posterior date . This finding is so remarkable that , if prove to be true ( and more examination needs to be done ) , it could have major implications on human evolutionary history .
“ I think factor flow could have been multidirectional , so some of the trait seen in Europe or Africa could have originated in Asia , ” said Athreya .
[ H / T : New Scientist ]
