Early human migration 'out of Africa' happened 12000 years ago: Study
New Delhi : Till date, it has been told that modern humans or homo sapiens evolved out from Africa to Asian continents about 60,000 years ago. But, researchers are now revising the history with new facts.
In last one decade, researchers have discovered that the migration of modern humans from Africa may have started as early as 120,000 years ago. They have found fossils in southern and central China dating between 70,000 and 120,000 years ago.
The findings have been published this week in Science journal.
However, they claimed that the original 'out of Africa' theory is not completely wrong as the early migration may have occurred in very small groups. “A later, major ‘Out of Africa’ event most likely occurred around 60 000 years ago or thereafter,” said Michael Petraglia, one of the coauthors of the study and a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
According to the authors of the study, complicating the origin story of humans calls for more research in previously unexplored parts of Asia and more complex models showing the dispersal of early humans.
“Indeed, what we are seeing in the behavioral record is that the spread of so-called modern human behaviors did not occur in a simple time-transgressive process from west to east,” said Christopher Bae of the University of Hawai’i at Manoa, another co-author of the study.
