Submitted by Michael Kan on Tue, 11/10/2009 - 12:34
Dating back to 110,000 years ago, a human fossil found in China could provide evidence disputing the theory that all modern day humans originally came from Africa.
Jin Changzhu, a researcher with the institute, said the find was especially important since very few human fossils from this evolutionary period have been found in China. He added that the jawbone is that of an early modern human, but it also bears the traits of our more primitive ancestors.
“The chin protrudes out like a Homo sapiens would, but the jaw also slopes in way like that of a Homo erectus,” he said.
Wu Xinzhi - 吴新智 - is a professor with the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP) in Beijing, China, and has been working there for more than four decades. He studies human origins and is a proponent of the multiregional hypothesis, which argues that modern humans did not solely originate from Africa, but evolved as they migrated throughout the different continents.
In 1998, he then proposed a related hypothesis called "Continuity with Hybridization." This argued that anatomically modern humans of East Asia likely originated in China. Paleolithic archeology, along with the recent discovery of an 110,000-year-old human jawbone, provides evidence for this, Wu has said.
