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New Chinese fossil hominid at about 1.9 million ..
Ralph L Holloway (rlh2@columbia.edu)
Thu, 16 Nov 1995 11:23:25 -0500
Brace yourselves. The NY Times reports today the discovery of a new
mandibular fragment dated at roughly 1.9 million years, at Longgupo Cave,
Sichuan, China. This, if confirmed, strongly suggests that an early
hominid species left Africa and a much earlier date than previously
suspected(actually, there have been a few souls who believed this). The
same sediments also yielded a hammerstone and a "large battered flake".
The teeth are claimed to be more primitive than any known Asian Homo
erectus finds. Homo ergaster or another species of early Homo (possibly
habilis) are suggested. the premolar has a double root like H. ergaster.
There is supposed to be a report in today's Nature (journal). Given the
new dates from Indonesian reported last year and the Dmanisi jaw and
tools from Georgia at 1.8 million years ago, there is surely growing
support for an early out of Africa scenario...
Ralph Holloway
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