Friday 31 December 2010

Human remains found in Israel may be the world's oldest

I believe the Bible, and not in macroevolution, but I find this item interesting. As reported by Associated Press on December 27, 2010:

Israeli archaeologists said Monday they may have found the earliest evidence yet for the existence of modern man, which, if proven, could upset theories of the origin of humans.

A Tel Aviv University team excavating a cave in central Israel said teeth found in the cave are about 400,000 years old and resemble those of other remains of modern man, known scientifically as Homo sapiens. The earliest Homo sapiens remains found to date are only half as old...

...The accepted scientific theory is that Homo sapiens originated in Africa and migrated out of the continent. Gopher said if the remains are definitively linked to modern human’s ancestors, it could mean that modern man in fact originated in what is now Israel...

...According to today’s accepted scientific theories, modern humans and Neanderthals stemmed from a common ancestor who lived in Africa about 700,000 years ago. One group of descendants migrated to Europe and developed into Neanderthals, later becoming extinct. Another group stayed in Africa and evolved into Homo sapiens — modern humans.

The issue of the American Journal of Physical Anthropology that this study appears in hasn't yet been posted.

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