/ world today news/ In Laos, scientists excavated a skull of an anatomically similar individual to modern humans, which is believed to be the oldest part of a Homo sapiens skeleton discovered in Asia. The discovery raises doubts about when ancient people migrated from Africa and how they colonized the planet, writes the British daily “Independent”.
The first colonizer of the world
The skeleton is between 46,000 years old. – 63 thousand years and is at least 20,000 years older than the previous oldest human fossil found in Southeast Asia. This suggests that our ancestors colonized Asia shortly after leaving Africa.
The upper part of the cerebral cortex, jaw bone and teeth are preserved from the skull. They all have clear similarities to those of modern Homo sapiens, such as a high forehead, small eyebrows and small front teeth, the researchers noted. Anthropologists discovered the skull while excavating Tam Pa Ling Cave in the Pa Hang Mountains in northern Laos, between Vietnam and Taiwan. The discovery of such ancient remains of modern humans inland suggests they entered Asia not along the presumed coastal migration routes, scientists say.
The oldest person in the region
Previous genetic studies suggested that modern humans migrated through southeast Asia about 60,000 years ago, but this is the first fossil to support that theory, says Dr. Laura Shackelford of the University of Illinois, bTV reported. This is definitely an old fossil of a modern human. and definitely the oldest in the area. Other modern Homo sapiens fossils have been found in China or other parts of south-east Asia, but are either not well dated or do not bear enough resemblance to modern humans, adds Dr Shackelford. “This skeleton is well dated and shows strong similarities to modern humans …looked just like us, even though it was a distant relative of today’s humanity.
“It’s hard to say much about his food because the teeth are very loose. This is a relatively young mature individual, so it fed mostly on tough food to be able to wear down its teeth so much,” says the doctor.
And now where?
The discovery could revolutionize our understanding of how humans got to the far corners of the world. Until now, the earliest evidence of modern Homo sapiens outside of Africa is a fossil found in the Levant region of the Eastern Mediterranean and has been dated to between 80,000 and 100,000 years ago.
Professor Chris Stringer of the Natural History Museum in London says the discovery is very important because it shows that humans colonized Asia at least 50,000 years ago. If this is confirmed, then it is possible that people arrived in New Guinea and Australia only a few thousand years later, adds the professor.
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