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FROM LEFT: ROLF QUAM; IAN CARTWRIGHT; MICHAEL PETRAGLIA; SHARMA CENTRE FOR HERITAGE EDUCATION, INDIA; ZHAOYU ZHU. MAP: EKLER/SHUTTERSTOCK. FAR RIGHT FROM TOP: C.D. STANDISH, A.W.G. PIKE AND D.L. HOFFMANN; ZERAY ALEMSEGEDHUMAN ORIGINS
Our Expanding
Story
Researchers agree that the earliest
hominins — our branch of the
primate family tree — emerged in
Africa. But things get a little fuzzy
after that. In particular, the map
of when and how members of
the genus Homo spread across
the Old World continues to
change. A number of inds this
year chart a new course for
our ancestors and distant kin.Al Wusta, Saudi Arabia
At about 85,000 years old, this finger bone is the oldest
anatomically modern human fossil found on the Arabian Peninsula,
researchers reported in April in Nature Ecology & Evolution. Based
on animal bones, stone tools and sediment deposits at the same
site, the team believes it was beside a year-round freshwater lake,
surrounded by semi-arid grassland full of game: an attractive camp
for the early hunter-gatherers they believe spent time there.Misliya, Israel
Announced in January in
Science, the partial jaw of
an anatomically modern
human was dated to be
177,000 to 194,000 years
old. It’s the oldest skeletal
evidence of our species
beyond Africa, and pre-
dates earlier estimates of
when Homo sapiens left
that continent by more
than 50,000 years.