Fossil Homo sapiens finger from Saudi desert is 90,000 years old

By Will Dunham

 

The single fossil finger bone of Homo sapiens - pictured from various angles - from the Al Wusta site, Saudi Arabia is pictured in this undated handout composite photo obtained by Reuters April 9, 2018. Ian Cartwright/Handout via REUTERS

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A fossil finger bone dating back about 90,000 years that was unearthed in Saudi Arabia's Nefud Desert is pointing to what scientists are calling a new understanding of how our species came out of Africa en route to colonizing the world.

 

Researchers said on Monday the middle bone of an adult's middle finger found at site called Al Wusta is the oldest Homo sapiens fossil outside of Africa and the immediately adjacent eastern Mediterranean Levant region, as well as the first ancient human fossil from the Arabian peninsula.

 

Researchers look over excavations at the Al Wusta site, Saudi Arabia in this undated handout photo obtained by Reuters April 9, 2018. The ancient lake bed (in white) is surrounded by sand dunes of the Nefud Desert. Michael Petraglia/Handout via REUTERS

 

While the Nefud Desert is now a veritable sea of sand, it was hospitable when this individual lived - a grasslands teeming with wildlife alongside a freshwater lake.

 

Our species first appeared in Africa roughly 300,000 years ago. Scientists previously thought Homo sapiens departed Africa in a single, rapid migration some 60,000 years ago, journeying along the coastlines and subsisting on marine resources, said anthropologist Michael Petraglia of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Germany.

 

This fossil of an intermediate phalanx bone, 1.2 inches (3.2 cm) long, suggests our species exited Africa far earlier.

 

"This supports a model not of a single rapid dispersal out of Africa 60,000 years ago, but a much more complicated scenario of migration.

 

And this find, together with other finds in the last few years, suggests ... Homo sapiens is moving out of Africa multiple times during many windows of opportunity during the last 100,000 years or so," Petraglia said.

 

The discovery also shows these people were moving across the interior of the land, not coastlines, Petraglia added.

 

Numerous animal fossils were discovered, including hippos, wild cattle, antelopes and ostriches, University of Oxford archaeologist Huw Groucutt said. Bite marks on fossilized bones indicated carnivores lived there, too.

 

Stone tools that hunter-gatherers used also were found.

 

"The big question now is what became of the ancestors of the population to which the Al Wusta human belonged," Groucutt said.

 

"We know that shortly after they lived, the rains failed and the area dried up. Did this population die out? Did it survive further south in Arabia, where even today there are mountainous areas with quite high rainfall and coastal regions which receive monsoonal rains?" Groucutt added.

 

"Or did the drying environment mean that some of these people were 'pushed' further into Eurasia, as part of a worldwide colonization?"

 

The research was published in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution.

 

(Reporting by Will Dunham; Editing by Sandra Maler)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-04-10

flipped the bird from 90k yrs ago.

The stuff you can find in a desert, cant find a trace of a giant Malaysian aircraft, but a 90k year old finger bone even if you aren't looking for it jumps straight out.

Next item found: Red Bull kid.

Scientists have determined this was from an individual belonging to the last civilised settlement to live in the region.

Be great to plant the earliest remnant under someplace in the arctic just to confuse the historians !

So, this man went from Africa to Saudi Arabia ? And maybe, later on, into Europe. What race was he ? Was he coloured ?

So, this man went from Africa to Saudi Arabia ? And maybe, later on, into Europe. What race was he ? Was he coloured ?
[emoji2]

Coloured? My God man have you no decency you cannot say that these days the snowflakes will revolt !!!

Sent from my SM-A720F using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

Presumably, one of the original Forty Thieves nobbled by the Saudis.

If it had a booger on it, it might be Somchai's.