Southern exodus. A trail of stone tools and fossil bones suggests that early humans left Africa 1.8 million years ago. Some headed north to Dmanisi, Georgia; others may have taken a southern route into China and Java, Indonesia. Credit: NASA/TerraMetrics/Human Origins Program, Smithsonian
By Ann Gibbons
ScienceNOW Daily News
Over a million years ago, a band of early humans left their stone tools and two front teeth near a stream in southwest China. For decades, the precise age of the fossils has remained a mystery, leaving open a central question in paleontology: How quickly did our human ancestors reach China after leaving Africa? Now, thanks to advanced dating techniques, scientists may finally have the answer.
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Friday, October 10, 2008