Fossil finger points to new theory

Discovery casts doubt on view of migration from Africa to China

A fossil of a human finger found by British archaeologists in Saudi Arabia supports a theory long held by Chinese researchers that modern humans left Africa and migrated to China tens of thousands of years earlier than previously thought.

The commonly-held view in the scientific community is that early Homo sapiens first migrated from Africa to what is now Europe and the Middle East around 60,000 years ago, and reached southern China as early as 45,000 years ago.