- 4137 - OLDEST POPULATION - evidence of oldest humans? 86,000-year-old human bone found in Laos cave hints at 'failed population' from prehistory. The discovery of a skull and shin bone fragment in a cave in Laos pushes back the earliest known date of Homo sapiens in Southeast Asia.
---------- 4137 - OLDEST POPULATION - evidence of oldest humans?
- Researchers at Tam Pà Ling cave in Laos have
found a fragment of a human shinbone that is up to 86,000 years old. Homo sapiens arrived in Southeast Asia.
-
- The finding comes from the cave of Tam Pà
Ling, or Cave of the Monkeys, which sits at around 3,840 feet above sea level
on a mountain in northern Laos. Human
bone fragments previously found in the cave were 70,000 years old, making them
some of the earliest evidence of humans in this area of the world. This
discovery prompted archaeologists to dig deeper.
-
- The team finding two new bones, fragments of the front of a skull and a shin
bone that were likely washed into the Tam Pà Ling cave during a monsoon. Even
though the bones were fractured and incomplete, the researchers were able to
compare their dimensions and shape with other bones from early humans, finding
that they most closely matched Homo sapiens rather than other archaic humans,
such as Homo erectus, Neandertals or Denisovans.
-
- They used luminescence dating of nearby
sediments and uranium-series dating of mammalian teeth from the same layers to
produce an age range for the human remains. -
- Luminescence dating is a technique that
measures the last time crystalline materials, such as stones, were exposed to
sunlight or heat, while U-series dating is a radiometric technique that,
similar to carbon-14 dating, measures the decay of uranium over time into
thorium, radium and lead. The skull, they estimated, was up to 73,000 years
old, and the shin bone dates back as far as 86,000 years ago.
-
- This early date is the timing of Homo
sapiens' arrival in Asia. Little to no
anthropological research was done in Laos since the second world war. Debates about human colonization of Southeast
Asia have taken place for decades as researchers have attempted to understand
how and when humans crossed straits and seas to eventually end up in Australia.
-
-------------------- The Cave of the Monkeys, sits at around
3,840 feet above sea level in northern Laos.
They used luminescence dating of nearby sediments and uranium-series
dating of mammalian teeth from the same cave layer to date the human fossils.
-
- While the genetic and stone tool evidence
amassed to date strongly supports a single, rapid dispersal of Homo sapiens
from Africa some time after 60,000 years ago, studies such as this one are
producing evidence for earlier migrations, many of which may have been dead
ends.
-
- Perhaps this was a group that dispersed to
Southeast Asia and died out before they were able to contribute genes to
today's human gene pool. No stone tools
or other clues about these humans' lifestyles have been found in Tam Pà Ling.
-
- Archaeologists working on the prehistory
of Asia have long suspected that, even before 65,000 years ago, ancient humans
were capable of reaching islands and making sea crossings to populate seemingly
remote parts of the world.
-
- From when our ancient relatives began
walking on two feet to the first known medical amputation on Homo sapiens. Many ancient humans used caves as shelter
hundreds of thousands of years ago.
-
- Humans are exceptionally diverse, but we all
have something in common: We're Homo sapiens, and we share a common ancestor.
But the story of how we arose, spread around the globe and acted along the way
is still emerging as scientists find new clues.
-
---------------- The discovery of a 1.5 million-year-old
vertebra from Israel hints that early humans migrated out of Africa not in one
but multiple waves. It's unknown which human species the bone belongs to. Although there is just one human species
today, there used to be multiple species in the genus Homo.
-
- Researchers found evidence that a
now-extinct human species left Africa for Eurasia at least 1.8 million years
ago, and there's evidence that modern humans left Africa as early as 270,000
years ago. Now, the discovery of this vertebra (the oldest human bone ever
found in Israel), reveals that humans likely left the African continent
multiple times.
-
----------------- Researchers have attempted to do a
family tree for all of humanity to see how everyone is related. In their
investigation, the scientists looked at thousands of genome sequences from 215
populations from around the globe, including from ancient and modern humans, as
well as our ancient human relatives.
-
- A computer algorithm looked at genetic
variations among genomes, enabling the team to see who was descended from and
related to whom. After approximating where these ancestors lived, the
researchers created a map for this gargantuan family tree. As one might expect,
it all goes back to Africa.
-
- Bipedalism was common among the earliest
known species of humankind, not only on the ground but also in trees. It
coexisted with other types of movement in a tree environment, including
quadrupedal (four-legged) movement using firm hand grips, clearly differing
from that of gorillas and chimpanzees, which use the back of their phalanges
for support ("knuckle walking").
-
- Walking on our own two feet is quite a
feat, one that was pulled off by our ancestors as far back as 7 million years
ago. The discovery was made when researchers
studied a thigh bone and a pair of forearm bones from the 7 million-year-old
“Sahelanthropus tchadensis”, which may be the oldest-known hominin — a relative
of humans dating from the period after our ancestors split off from those of
modern apes. It appears that S. tchadensis, who was found in Chad, both walked
on two feet and also climbed trees.
-
----------------- A 1.4 million-year-old jawbone found in
Spain may belong to the oldest-known human relative in Europe. The upper jawbone has features that showcase
the evolutionary pattern of the human face, suggesting that it's closer to
modern humans than it is to ape-like primates.
-
- It's possible that this jawbone belongs to
Homo antecessor, whose position in the human family tree is controversial but
may be a cousin of modern humans and Neanderthals. Until this finding, the
oldest-known human relative in Europe dated to 1.2 million years ago.
-
- Four different Australopithecus crania that
were found in the Sterkfontein caves, South Africa. The Sterkfontein cave fill
containing this and other Australopithecus fossils was dated to 3.4 to 3.6
million years ago, far older than previously thought.
-
- The new date overturns the long-held belief
that South African Australopithecus is a younger offshoot of East African
Australopithecus afarensis. This new
analysis of old, human-like bones revealed they may be more than 1 million
years older than previously thought.
-
- The new date range, 3.4 million to 3.7
million years old, of these Australopithecus bones from Sterkfontein, South
Africa, improves the odds that this species gave rise to humans. If true, the finding could rewrite our
understanding of how humans arose: The fossils would predate the iconic
"Lucy" fossil, a 3.2 million-year-old Australopithecus afarensis in
East Africa whose species was a prime contender for being our direct ancestor.
-
- Researchers in Laos uncovered an ancient
molar that may have belonged to a Denisovan girl who lived up to 164,000 years
ago. Not much is known about the
Denisovans, but along with Neanderthals, they're the closest extinct relatives
of modern humans.
-
----------------- Precious few fossils exist from these
humans, who are named after Denisova Cave in southern Siberia where their
first-known remains were found. Over the years, their bones have also been found
in China. Now, the discovery of a 164,000-year-old tooth from Laos reveals that
the Denisovans also lived in Southeast Asia at low altitudes where it was warm
and humid.
-
- The oldest medical amputation on record is
prehistoric, dating to a Stone Age patient who lost a leg in Borneo 31,000
years ago, researchers found. A skilled surgeon cut off a child's leg, whose
stump showed signs of healing. That child hunter-gatherer went on to live for
another six to nine years after the surgery, according to an analysis of the
individual's tooth enamel. Previously, the oldest medical amputation on record
dated to 7,000 years ago.
-
----------------- A massive icy barrier that stood up to
300 stories tall may have blocked the way of the people who left Eurasia to
become the first Americans. The existence of this frigid obstacle suggests that
these people didn't cross the Bering land bridge from Asia to America on foot,
but rather sailed on boats along the coast.
-
- Researchers came to this conclusion after
analyzing 64 geological samples from six locations across the ancient bridge
area. They found that the ice-free corridor didn't completely open until about
13,800 years ago, a confusing date given that other evidence suggests the first
Americans arrived much earlier and that the Clovis culture found in New Mexico
was already established at that time.
-
- Researchers found about 30 footprints from
young children on top of track marks left by a giant sloth, one of the big
creatures that once lived in the Americas. These 11,000-year-old prints, found
in what is now New Mexico, suggest that the sloth's prints had become muddy,
creating a prime spot for jumping.
-
----------------- Thousands of years ago, ancient humans
and animals left their footprints on a coastal stretch in England that
researchers are calling a superhighway. Some of the tracks are about 8,500
years old, just a few thousand years after the last ice age ended.
-
- Researchers
also found the tracks of aurochs (an extinct ox species), red deer, wild
boars, wolves, lynx and cranes. Based on the configuration of some of the human
footprints, it's possible that these ancient people were hunting the species of
animals whose prints are also preserved.
-
-
August 31, 2023 OLDEST
POPULATION - oldest humans? 4137
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