Modern Humans Arrived in China Before Europe, Ancient Teeth Reveal

Forty-seven human teeth dug up out of a cave in southern China reveal that our species, Homo sapiens, may have arrived in China 80,000 years ago – long before humans were able to leave their mark on Northern China and Europe.

The findings, published in the journal Nature, may compel researchers to reconsider the current view of human migrations out of Africa – and could hint that Neanderthals may have been a much greater barrier to Europe than previously thought.

Scientists believe that Homo sapiens first emerged in East African somewhere between 190,000 and 160,000 years ago, spread into the eastern Mediterranean around 100,000 to 60,000 years ago but then were replaced by Neanderthals after that, according to Robin Dennell of the University of Exeter, who was not involved in the paper.

The successful dispersal westward into Europe would not have come until much later, around 40,000 years ago. And scientists think that our species didn’t trek eastward until around 60,000 years ago, an idea based on some genetic estimates as well as on the similarities between stone tools in South Africa dated to 60,000 years ago and some in South Asia from 36,000 to 30,000 years ago.

As reported in the Los Angeles Times on October 14, 2015.