Dental News - Discovery of fossilized jawbone rewrites dates of human migration

Discovery of fossilized jawbone rewrites dates of human migration

A close-up view of the Misliya-1 jawbone and teeth—the earliest modern human fossil ever found outside of Africa, according to the researchers who discovered it. (Photograph: Binghamton University)

Dental Tribune International

Wed. 7. February 2018

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NEW YORK, U.S.: An international team of researchers from Israel and America has discovered a fossilized jawbone that they say is the earliest modern human fossil ever found outside of Africa. The finding suggests that modern humans left the continent at least 50,000 years earlier than previously thought. The maxilla with several teeth was found at the Misliya Cave site in Israel, one of several prehistoric cave sites located on Mount Carmel.

While older fossils of modern humans have been found in Africa, the timing and routes of modern human migration out of Africa are key issues for understanding the evolution of our own species. According to researchers, the Middle Eastern region was a major corridor for hominin migrations during the Pleistocene and has been occupied at different times by both modern humans and Neanderthals.

“Misliya is an exciting discovery,” said paleoanthropologist Dr. Rolf Quam, one of the head researchers in the study and associate professor at Binghamton University, U.S. “It provides the clearest evidence yet that our ancestors first migrated out of Africa much earlier than we previously believed. It also means that modern humans were potentially meeting and interacting during a longer period of time with other archaic human groups, providing more opportunity for cultural and biological exchanges.”

Based on several dating techniques, the researchers have suggested that the jawbone is between 175,000 and 194,000 years old, pushing back the timing of modern human migration out of Africa by at least 50,000 years. “While all of the anatomical details in the Misliya fossil are fully consistent with modern humans, some features are also found in Neanderthals and other human groups,” said Quam. “One of the challenges in this study was identifying features in Misliya that are found only in modern humans. These are the features that provide the clearest signal of what species the Misliya fossil represents.”

With several recent archaeological and fossil discoveries in Asia also pushing back the timing of the first appearance of modern humans in the region, the discussion regarding the migration out of Africa remains wide open.

The finding was presented in a study titled “The earliest modern humans outside Africa,” published on Jan 26 2018, in the Science journal.