Scientists are now considering that modern man migrated from Africa 180,000 years ago, with more than 50,000 years than previous theories sustained. The new theory emerged after scientists dated a jawbone human fossil as 200,000 years old.
The 200,000-year-old human jawbone fossil discovery is changing humans’ history of evolution
The jawbone fossil was found in 2002 in a cave from Mount Carmel, in Israel, but only recently the scientists were able to date the fossil. Being a 200,000 years old human fossil of a modern man, the discovery will most likely change the timeline of the humans’ history and evolution. Scientists have already pushed back with more than 50,000 years the beginning of the modern man migration outside Africa and are thinking to also push back with a few hundred of thousands of years the period of modern man emergence on Earth.
Other scientists applauded the discovery as the fossil is the oldest human fossil that has been found in Eurasia, ever. Moreover, paleoanthropologists believe this discovery shows that modern man could’ve been walking on the surface of the Earth at the same time with his predecessors.
The place of the discovery
The Misliya Cave, in Israel, is an ‘oasis’ for paleoanthropologists as many fossils and prehistoric proves of human activities have been found there.
As the founder of the 200,000-year-old human fossil, Israel Hershkovitz explained, bedding and tools found in the Misliya Cave area show that the inhabitants of that site were occupied with gazelles, aurochs, and deer hunting, and were also eating rabbits, turtles, and ostrich eggs.
What comes next?
Scientists consider that such discoveries are filling in the gaps that are present in the timeline of humans evolution. However, there are still lots of questions that remain unanswered.
But researchers are full of hope and look forward to finding new human fossils to give clearer answers to the already existing questions regarding the evolutionary track of humans.
