Stone tools in China suggest early human presence in Asia

A British-Chinese team of scientists has discovered evidence that early human ancestors were in Asia 2.12 million years ago, more than 200,000 years earlier than previously thought.

Stone tools found at Shangchen on a plateau in northern China suggest primitive humans, or a close relative, were in the region. Previously, the earliest evidence of human ancestors outside Africa was in Dmanisi, Georgia - dating back 1.85 million years.

The new findings, published in the scientific journal Nature, indicate that hominids, the family that includes humans and their ancestors, left Africa earlier than is suggested by the evidence at Dmanisi.