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| China-Japan-Koreas |
| New evidence challenges "Out-of-Africa" hypothesis of modern human origins |
| 2005-04-28 |
| ...so Chinese say Chinese archaeologists said newly found evidence proves that a valley of Qingjiang River, a tributary on the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, might be one of the regions where Homo sapiens, or modern man, originated. The finding challenges the "Out-of-Africa" hypothesis of modern human origins, according to which about 100,000 years ago modern humans originated in Africa, migrated to other continents, and replaced populations of archaic humans across the globe. The finding comes from a large-scale excavation launched in the Qingjiang River Valley in 1980s when construction began on a range of hydropower stations on the Qingjiang River, a fellow researcher with the Hubei Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology. Archaeologists discovered three human tooth fossils in one mountain cave in Mazhaping Village, in the Gaoping Township of Jianshi County, western Hubei Province, and found pieces of lithic technology and evidence of fire usage in Minor Cave in Banxia. There were similar findings in Nianyu Mountain and in Zhadong Cave in Banxia, all in Changyang Prefecture of the Qiangjiang River Valley. A special research panel named the Jianshi Man research team has been set up to analyze the findings. Zheng Shaohua, a member of the Jianshi man research team from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, confirmed the tooth fossils belonged to humans dating back between 2.15 and 1.95 million years ago. The archaeologists also found fossils of bone implements in the cultural strata at the ruins where the human tooth fossils were discovered. The fossilized bone implements bear traces of human beating, testifying that humans, not apes, lived inside the mountain cave, said Qiu Zhanxiang, another member on the Jianshi Man research team. The pieces of lithic technology and traces of human fire usage found in Minor Cave in Banxia were said to date back 130,000 years, the ruins of human fire usage in Nianyu Mountain were dated as 120, 000 years or 90,000 years old, while pieces of lithic technology and traces of fire usage found in Zhadong Cave in Banxia, were dated as 27,000 years old, said Professor Zheng. Before these latest archaeological findings, Chinese archaeologists had found fossils of what is now known as Changyang Man in 1957 under the leadership of renowned Chinese paleoanthropologist Jia Lanpo. Changyang Man represents early Homo sapiens dating back 200,000 years. The latest archaeological findings together with the earlier discovery of Changyang Man all prove there was continuity in Homo sapiens' development in China, said Liu Qingzhu, head of the Archaeology Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. "They are also of great significance to research on Paleolithic era in China and East Asia, and theories regarding multiple origins of mankind," said Liu. Dating is the key here. It presumes that certain techniques are based on values that do not change with time. Miscellaneous techniques can yield some sort of agreement, but it is still a guess, although it may be a good guess. It is often corroborated by geologic stratification, but even that has some problems. For instance, under Table Top Mountain, AZ, several modern human skeletons were discovered in mid 1800's under a layer of lava that is normally considered to be a part of later miocene--to this day, I have to stipulate. No traces of introduction into layer have been found at the time of discovery. It would have been interesting to actually date these skeletons, but unfortunately, Smithsonian lost them about 1900. Ales Hrdlicka, at the time the boss there, did not like them anyway, heh. Not saying that the skeletons were really from miocene, but rather that there seem to be some glitches in stratification calibration and assumptions about erosion rates. Thusly, dating must be always considered only tentative and subject to revisions by default. Even when we have C14 RCD method available for finds belonging to the holocene, sometimes the results may be skewed a bit by mineralization or other processes. |
| Posted by:Sobiesky |
| #20 D'oh! pretty obviously that wasn't Larry. Less obvious due to the non-cynical nature is that it was me....damn |
| Posted by: Frank G 2005-04-28 9:00:28 PM |
| #19 I find that evidence as exciting, and not just as a religious-basis thing.... the commonality of DNA is a pretty cool idea with where it runs to. Nice cites, guys |
| Posted by: Larry the Cable Guy 2005-04-28 8:59:11 PM |
| #18 Point taken about Wiki. Here is a somewhat more authoritative source. It also explains why 'Eve' and 'Adam' necessarily exist, i.e. we all must have a common male and female ancestor. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2005-04-28 8:50:35 PM |
| #17 no problem, Sobiesky - I just take contributor-driven tech/history sites with a "salt-lick" proviso |
| Posted by: Frank G 2005-04-28 8:49:42 PM |
| #16 Sure - I stole it from The Big Chill, lol! |
| Posted by: .com 2005-04-28 8:48:26 PM |
| #15 .com, I like your spagetti analogy. Can I shamelessly steal it? ;-) |
| Posted by: Sobiesky 2005-04-28 8:44:44 PM |
| #14 Frank, the wiki section that Phil liked to was swept verbatim from a Dutch Organic Chemistry site that is fairly good. "A recent challenge to the Eve theory has been the observation that the mitochondria of sperm are sometimes passed to offspring. Still other evidence suggests that sperm and egg mitochondrial DNA may "recombine, or swap pieces of sequence with each other. So mitochondria may not be so pure a matrilineal marker as they were supposed when the theory was advanced. Depending on how frequently paternal inheritance and recombination occurred, as well as when they occurred, it may be that no Eve even existed. But scientists still disagree on whether these processes do occur, and if it turns out that they do, they may not occur frequently enough to make Eve or her identification impossible." |
| Posted by: Sobiesky 2005-04-28 8:42:14 PM |
| #13 There will be many "truths" in this relatively new field. Then, someday, there will be truth. It's fun following the tech and the debates, heh. Much of it is statistical guesswork, such as the "molecular clock technique" - which may be an observation without factual foundation. Just having fun watching the "experts" - who often differ - duke it out, heh. Brings new appreciation, IMO, for the fact that every "expert", no matter how confident or capable in articulating his/her idea (read: theory), is still just throwing spaghetti at the fridge door, hoping some will stick. I don't have a dog in this hunt. Color me a voyeur in this one, lol! |
| Posted by: .com 2005-04-28 8:40:33 PM |
| #12 PB - careful with Wiki as a source. I don't know squat to refute or corroborate that particular cite, but I've seen utter nonsense quoted on Wiki as "original-source-proof". Just a "salt-lick" warning, like Debka.... |
| Posted by: Frank G 2005-04-28 8:31:33 PM |
| #11 Much less well know is that there appears to be a Y Chromosome Adam, of considerably more recent origin than Eve, from which all humans descend - Wikipedia |
| Posted by: phil_b 2005-04-28 8:20:52 PM |
| #10 "Lucy" whacked me over the head and demanded I bring up the wymyn-power thingy, lol! |
| Posted by: .com 2005-04-28 8:17:44 PM |
| #9 .com thanks for pointing it out, without you we'll be still taping in darkness... ;-) Otherwise, yea, and? |
| Posted by: Sobiesky 2005-04-28 8:15:20 PM |
| #8 Think maternal mitochondria... Mitochondrial DNA - fun reading for the rest of your dull short life. |
| Posted by: .com 2005-04-28 6:36:13 PM |
| #7 Phil_b, the map may still be misleading. There has been a large drop of population ~ 10,000 BCE, some previous lineages may not exist anymore and that is bound to skew the results. Phavitch, "Long live the Brahmins of the Church of Scientism!" Unfortunately, that is a fact. They do. |
| Posted by: Sobiesky 2005-04-28 1:50:48 PM |
| #6 Who cares? But if these guys ever start talking about having invented baseball or football then its war I tell you, war! |
| Posted by: Jack is Back! 2005-04-28 10:52:48 AM |
| #5 There are, however, both DNA and fossil challenges to the Out of Africa theory (which posits that all living people are descended from a group of fully modern Homo sapiens who left their African homeland about 100,000 to 150,000 years ago). Analysis of the oldest DNA ever taken from skeletal remains, from the 60,000 year-old "Mungo Man" in Australia, show him to have a genetic lineage that is both older and distinct from the African line. Australian aborigines would thus descend from members of two migrations about forty millenia apart rather than a single one. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~allpoms/genetics4.html The problem with all this is that Out of Africa is that it has become orthodoxy and not subject to challenge [any more than the Socialist/PC culture on campus]. If you look in one spot, you'll only find in one spot. Then there is the problem of what constitutes the definition of 'modern human'. You can bet the goal posts will be moved if there is any evidence that starts to undermine the orthodoxy. |
| Posted by: Phavitch Phaviting2667 2005-04-28 10:18:51 AM |
| #4 The 'out of Africa' scenario says all modern humans come from a very small population circa 100k years ago. The Africa part is little more than speculation based on the preponderance of fossils from that continent. In a few years when we get gene maps from enough people we could well have the answer by tracing back genetic similarities. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2005-04-28 10:09:25 AM |
| #3 Lol, RC! Perfect example of their mentality. If they keep up these foolish games, they'll get us all killed someday, ala SARS. |
| Posted by: .Wheager Ebbineter4425 2005-04-28 7:57:07 AM |
| #2 Good call, Wheager. I'd say the Chinese put this together in response to the recent release of DNA test results from the Tarim Basin mummies: http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050419/lf_afp/chinaxinjiangmummies_050419134224 The western expanses of China were occupied by Caucasians long before the Chinese appeared. Even worse -- these Caucasians had some distinctly European artifacts. |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2005-04-28 7:47:57 AM |
| #1 My first thought reading the first sentence was, "Oops, I'm wrong - there IS a way the Chinese can become even more arrogant and insufferable." Of the claim there is doubt and research will develop some sort of consensus over time. One thing about which I have NO doubt is that proving this (and sticking with their stated conclusion, no matter what) will be very important to them. Where anyone else would likely think it a curiosity or be excited about the archaeological follow-up aspects and what might be learned, the Chinese will see it as some sort of "proof" of something or other. Remember when the old Soviet Union used to fall all over themselves about claiming they had the "oldest living citizen"? Same fool's gold mentality. For example, I don't recall an "I Love Lucy" campaign from the Oldevai Gorge Chamber of Commerce... I have no doubt this will be a closely guarded site and all manner of silly-assed security will required, complete with political purity req's, of anyone who wishes to study what has been found. There will be some fun fallout, I'm sure. They really got their panties in a twist about a year ago (IIRC) when archaeologists in what is now Cambodia found evidence of a bronze culture predating similar finds in China by hundreds of years. No detail which can be applied to shore up their vast collection of inferiority complexes is ever overlooked. |
| Posted by: .Wheager Ebbineter4425 2005-04-28 7:34:51 AM |