Skeleton find casts doubt on Out-of-Africa dispersal theory

The discovery of an early modern human skeleton in China dated to about 40,000 years ago indicates the Out of Africa dispersal theory of modern humans may not be as simple as previously thought.

The new finding, by researchers at the Institute of Vertebrate Palaeontology and Palaeoanthropology affiliated to the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Washington University, is published this week online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The researchers examined a skeleton recovered in 2003 from the Tianyuan Cave, Zhoukoudian, near Beijing. The skeleton dates back 42,000 to 38,500 years, making it the oldest modern human skeleton from eastern Eurasia, and one of the oldest modern humans from the region, said the researchers.