Early Humans Reached Asia Sooner Than Imagined, Fossil Discovery Shows

It is a well-established fact that humans originated in Africa, however, many researchers and scientists still debate on when they moved to different continents. A recent study suggests that Homo sapiens may have lived in the area around 86,000 years ago based on two fossils found in a cave in northern Laos, as per a report in CNN. The discovery calls into question the widely held belief that humans linearly spread throughout the globe between 50,000 and 60,000 years ago.

Kira Westaway, an associate professor at Macquarie University in Australia, told CNN that the early migration could have been unsuccessful, but "this does not distract from the fact that homo sapiens had arrived in this region by this time which is a remarkable achievement".

Archaeologists believe that our earliest ancestors most likely travelled coastlines and islands through southeast Asia towards Australia, roughly 50,000-60,000 years ago. DNA study of contemporary populations has further corroborated this theory. However, an increasing number of ancient human remains found in China and the Levant demonstrate that this period in human history is more complex than previously believed.

According to Ms Westaway, the migration that contributed to our current gene pool between 50,000 and 60,000 years ago "might not have been the first". It's possible that prior migrations were unsuccessful and did not contribute their genetic makeup to our current human population.
The two fossils from Laos, which include a piece of a skull's frontal region and a piece of a leg bone, were discovered in Tam Pa Ling cave. In 2009, when another portion of a skull was found, the archaeological site became known. Along with the most recent discoveries, the site has also discovered traces of two jawbones, a rib, and a phalanx. Based on the physical characteristics of the recovered remains, they are likely all early modern human remains.

Since they are too old for radiocarbon dating and the site is also protected by Laotian laws that "prevent any kind of destructive analysis." Therefore, to determine how recently a material with crystalline minerals was heated or exposed to sunlight, the scientists analysed the luminescence in the sediment layer's quartz and feldspar minerals. Further, they discovered "two animal teeth in the same layer as the human remains and dated them by measuring the radioactive decay of uranium isotopes". As per the outlet, the leg bone fragment was the older discovery, with the two fossils being dated 68,000 to 86,000 years ago.

"The fascinating part of this research is the location of the cave. We know that hominins tended to move along river valleys inland, but this location confirms our suspicions that early Homo sapiens had the capacity to adapt and disperse through upland forested regions much earlier than anticipated," Ms Westaway added.