Fossilized Teeth Reveal Ancient Human Habitation

<![CDATA[A treasure trove of fossilized human teeth discovered in a cave in China has the potential to rewrite the narrative on ancient human habitation, pushing the date back for human presence in south Asia by an additional 40,000 years. Up until this new discovery, the prevailing theory as to when humanity first appeared in the region was around 45,000 years ago, after its initial appearance in Africa at around 200,000 years in the past. The spread of Homo sapiens around the world is obviously undisputed, but the timeline for the event is uncertain at best, relying on the fossil record. A series of archaeological surveys and studies have tried to pinpoint a window of human settlement in various regions of the world, but developing a firm grasp of when we first came to southern Asia has been especially problematic. Now, a research study describing the find of 47 teeth in China’s Hunan province suggests that there could have been several waves of diaspora to reach the region. University College London’s Maria Martinon-Torres, one of the study’s authors, remarked in an interview with The Washington Post that while it proved impossible to directly analyze the teeth to determine an approximate age, samples of minerals and animal fossils taken nearby have been dated to anywhere between 80,000 years old and 120,000 years old. If these dates are indeed accurate, it has major ramifications for the current narrative as to when humans arrived there after leaving Africa. If the study is correct, and humans inhabited south Asia as early 80,000 years ago, it raises questions as to why there is only evidence of human habitation in Europe as far back as 45,000 years ago. Researchers have suggested that competition with older human ancestors such as Neanderthals could have kept human settlement in check until their eventual decline, though others have suggested that cold European winters could have also played a role in the slow pace of Homo sapiens spreading to the European continent. For now, the scientific community is enthusiastic about the find, with the caveat that the date of the fossilized teeth needs to be verified. Indeed, there have been some questions raised by the state of the teeth, as some seem to have evidence of cavities. According to human tooth evolution experts like New York University’s Shara Bailey, it is highly uncommon to see cavities in human teeth from more than 10,000 years in the past, which is when human diet changed thanks to the development of agriculture. For more information: www.nature.com