210,000-Year-Old Homo sapiens Skull Oldest Outside Africa

A 210,000-year-old human skull found in Greece
Source: Esben 468635/Adobe stock

The website https://www.ancient-origins.net/ reports that a 210,000-year-old human skull found in Greece in the 1970s could provide new evidence that our species left Africa much earlier than previously thought. If the claim is verified, the discovery will rewrite a key chapter of the human story, with the skull becoming the oldest known Homo sapiens fossil in Europe by more than 90,000 years.

Early Expansion not Maintained

The first fossil evidence for any modern humans outside Africa comes from the Middle East, from the archaeological sites of Skhul and Qafzeh in Israel, dating to around 120,000 years ago. However, this early expansion of modern humans was not maintained. A change to a colder climate may have driven those pioneers back into Africa. The expansion of our own species out of Africa that eventually led to the colonisation of the globe would start later – after 100,000 years ago.

A re-evaluation of early human remains and artefacts from Morocco has pushed back the advent of Homo sapiens by 100,000 years. Archaeologists and palaeontologists now think that the oldest of the fossils comes from 300,000 to 350,000 years ago. Skulls, teeth, and long bones of at least five Homo sapiens, along with stone tools and animal bones, have been found at Jebel Irhoud, Morocco since 2004.

Stone Tools

Although stone tools were found all over Africa by 300,000 years ago, human fossils were thought to be no older than 195,000 years old. One possibility was that the stone tools had been made by some hominid (any member of the group consisting of all modern and extinct humans and great apes - including gorillas, chimpanzees, and orangutans - and all their immediate ancestors) other than Homo sapiens. Jebel Irhoud is the oldest and richest African Middle Stone Age hominin site that documents early stages of the Homo sapiens.

Hominins, which may have originated in Africa up to 6 million years ago, include all the species that emerged after the Homo genus, split from that of chimpanzees. Humans and chimpanzees are very closely related and separated about 7.4 million years ago.  There is only a 1% difference between the chimpanzee genome and our own suggesting that we have a common ancestor.

Apidima 2 and its reconstruction.
(c) Katerina Harvati, Eberhard Karls: University of Tubinggen

Apidima Cave

The human skull from Greece was one of two cranial fossils found in Apidima Cave, on the southwestern coast of the Peloponnese in Greece. Both were initially identified as Neanderthals. The discovery of these skulls provides evidence of an earlier migration of people from Africa that left no trace in the DNA of people alive today. One skull was very distorted and the other incomplete. The more complete skull appears to be a Neanderthal. But the other shows clear characteristics, such as a rounded back to the skull, diagnostic of modern humans.

A multinational team from the University of Tubinggen in Germany, led by Katerina Harvati, reconstructed the specimens digitally and dated them by measuring their radioactive decay and confirmed that the skull known as Apidima 2 was an early Neanderthal dating from around 170,000 years ago. Scientists also digitally recreated the skull known as Apidima 1 and found that it was more likely a modern human (Homo sapiens), dating it to 210,000 years ago.

Human fossils from Daoxian and Zhirendong

Palaeontologists have discovered modern human fossils from Daoxian and Zhirendong in China dating to between 80,000 and 120,000 years ago. DNA studies indicate that there was early interbreeding between African humans and Neanderthals.

The new evidence from Apidima further extends our understanding of modern human dispersal and interaction with other hominin species. Human evolution has been thought of in terms of new species developing and replacing older simpler ones. Modern humans were thought to have left Africa and moved across the world from around 70,000 years ago replacing the Neanderthals in Europe about 40,000 years ago.  New fossil discoveries, improvements in their dating and the advent of genetic evidence, has led to a reappraisal of the distribution of modern humans.

Adult Male Cranium 'H.naledi'
from Lesed 1 Chamber, Naledi, South Africa

Neanderthals, Homo naledi and Denisovans

Evidence from modern day Israel, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan, suggest the first wave of modern humans out of Africa were replaced by Neanderthals, before the final, more successful human migration that followed. In southern Africa, modern humans were alive at the same time as a much smaller and seemingly more primitive species called Homo naledi . Genetic evidence from Siberia and Tibet has identified a new hominin species – the Denisovans – that shared a history of interbreeding and interaction with Neanderthals. DNA analysis of our own genomes shows that the Neanderthals bred with our own species.

People living today who are of European, Eurasian, and Asian descent have well-identified Neanderthal-derived segments in their genome. Present-day Africans, however, do not have detectable traces of Neanderthal DNA in their genomes. This shows that whatever sexual contact occurred between modern humans and Neanderthals happened among humans who left the African continent. 

People living outside Africa today trace their ancestry to a migration that left the continent around 60,000 years ago. As modern humans moved across Europe and Asia, they largely replaced other species they met, such as the Neanderthals and Denisovans.

Cranial features of Modern Man and Neanderthal compared

If at least some early modern humans left Africa more than 210,000 years ago, they may have settled in the Levant (Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Cyprus, Turkey, Israel and Jordan) before expanding west into Europe, which was already home to Neanderthals. Scientists believe that any early human pioneers who did reach Europe died out there, before the Neanderthals themselves were replaced by an influx of Homo sapiens about 40,000 years ago.

Conclusion

A 210,000-year-old human skull found in Greece in the 1970s could provide new evidence that our species left Africa much earlier than previously thought, becoming the oldest known Homo sapiens fossil in Europe by more than 90,000 years. Some experts, however, question whether the skull really belonged to a modern human. Concerns have also been expressed about the dating procedure used. For now, at least, the jury is still out on this recent ‘Earth breaking’ discovery!
For further information see:
https://www.ancient-origins.net/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YwlBl8WLb0

Oldest Human DNA from Africa

Map of Morroco showing Grotte des Pigeons
(c) MailOnline/Johny Reading

About 15,000 years ago, in the oldest known cemetery in the world, people buried their dead in sitting positions with beads and animal horns, deep in a cave in what is now Morocco. These people were also buried with small, sophisticated stone arrowheads and points. Archaeologists assumed they were part of an advanced European culture that had migrated across the Mediterranean Sea to North Africa.

Recent studies of their ancient DNA show that they had no European ancestry. Instead, they were related to both Middle Easterners and sub-Saharan Africans, suggesting that more people were migrating in and out of North Africa than previously thought.

First Fossil Evidence of Modern Humans

The first fossil evidence for any modern humans outside Africa comes from the Middle East, from the archaeological sites of Skhul and Qafzeh in Israel, dating to around 120,000 years ago. However, this early expansion of modern humans was not maintained. Until recently, the expansion of our own species out of Africa that eventually led to the colonisation of the globe was thought to have occurred after 100,000 years ago.

A re-evaluation of early human remains and artefacts also from Morocco has pushed back the advent of Homo sapiens by 100,000 years. Archaeologists and palaeontologists now think that the oldest of the fossils comes from 300,000 to 350,000 years ago. Skulls, teeth, and long bones of at least five Homo sapiens, along with stone tools and animal bones, have been found at Jebel Irhoud, Morocco.

Teeth from skeletons unearthered at 
Grotte des Pigeons cave revealing extensive
tooth decay. Credit: Isabelle De Groote

Analysis of deposits from the front of the cave revealed the ancient people indulged on snails, pine nuts and, significantly, carbohydrate-rich acorns, which may have contributed to the tooth decay found in these early people. The new findings suggest that the concept of a ‘sweet tooth’ may be much older than believed. Nevertheless, it is estimated that less than 2% of Stone Age foragers had cavities in their teeth in marked contrast to later populations on a diet high in carbohydrates.

Oldest human DNA evidence from Africa

The oldest human DNA evidence yet from Africa has come from the cave known as the Grotte des Pigeons, near the village of Taforalt in northeast Morocco. Humans occupied this cave on and off from at least 80,000 years ago till about 10,000 years ago.  These people lived in the front of the cave and buried their dead in the back.

During recent excavations at Grotte des Pigeons, archaeologists saved the inner-ear petrous bones, which provides an excellent source for ancient DNA. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, in Jena, Germany, extracted ancient mitochondrial DNA, which is passed on only from mothers to their children, from seven individuals.

The researchers found no genetic tie to ancient Europeans. Known as the Iberomaurusians, they seem to be related to Middle Easterners and other Africans. These people shared about two-thirds of their genetic ancestry with Natufians, hunter-gatherers who lived in the Middle East 14,500 to 11,000 years ago, and one-third with sub-Saharan Africans who were most closely related to today’s West Africans and the Hadza of Tanzania.

 

Grotte des Pigeons Cave at Taforalt
Photo: Wikipedia

Iberomaurusians and Natufians

Further studies will search for the people who gave rise to both the Iberomaurusians, found throughout North Africa, and the Natufians. The Natufian culture existed in the Levant, a region in the Eastern Mediterranean. The culture was unusual in that it supported a sedentary or semi-sedentary population even before the introduction of agriculture. Natufians founded Jericho which may be the oldest city in the world (Wikipedia).

The theory that Europeans from Sicily or the Iberian Peninsula were buried at Grotte des Pigeons was not supported by DNA analysis. The fact that the Natufian culture existed in the Middle East suggests the Grotte des Pigeons people and the Natufians shared common ancestors from North Africa or the Middle East.

 These findings provide new evidence of early contacts between North Africa and the Near East, and regions south of the Sahara Desert. Further DNA studies on other Iberomaurusian sites will be required to establish whether the evidence from the Grotte des Pigeons is representative of the Iberomaurusian gene pool.

Conclusion

The number of ancient DNA studies has increased dramatically over the past two decades, covering a period of human history going back 40,000 years. The oldest human DNA evidence yet from Africa has come from the cave known as the Grotte des Pigeons, in northeast Morocco. Archaeologists had assumed that these ancient people were part of an advanced European culture that had migrated across the Mediterranean Sea to North Africa. Recent studies of the ancient DNA of these people shows that they had no European ancestry. Instead, they were related to both Middle Easterners and sub-Saharan Africans.

https://www.livescience.com/62131-oldest-human-dna-mysterious-ancient-culture.html?utm_source=notification

https://www.livescience.com/42346-hunter-gatherers-had-tooth-decay.html

http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/03/oldest-dna-africa-offers-clues-mysterious-ancient-culture